Graduation Date
6-2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Department/Program Conferring Degree
Philosophy
Keywords
Eros, mania, community, hierarchy, god/divine
Abstract
This project is a dissertation about thinking at the limit of discourse. Such a project will attempt to frustrate the assumptions that logocentrism makes, i.e., thinking that is defined and delimited by the categories of discursive reasoning, while striving to reacquaint ourselves with the forgotten ground from which discursive thought emerges. While logocentric thought has been assumed to be at the core of Western philosophical thought originating in pre-Socratic thought until Nietzsche, my project will point to specific moments in the history of Western philosophy where thinkers have pushed against the boundaries of logocentrism from within. These thinkers strive to push discursive reasoning to the point where it breaks so that we can experience the limits of discourse.
The Platonic conception of eras and Dionysius the Areopagiate's via negativa will be used to reveal moments where these thinkers have felt compelled to think beyond what discourse can capture. I will also look to Heidegger's critique of the Aristotelian logos apophantikos and his own turn to poetic language to approach this topic will be used to reveal these moments in the rupture of a closed economy of discourse.
Recommended Citation
Frazer-Simser, Benjamin, "A discourse of the non-discursive in Plato and pseudo-Dionysius" (2016). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 217.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/217