Abstract

My purpose here is to compare, contrast, and critically reflect on two critiques of simple immediacy, Hegel’s and Derrida’s. The Hegelian critique occurs in the chapter on sense certainty in The Phenomenology of Spirit; the Derridean in the criticism of proper names in Glas. These texts will be my primary sources and points of reference. When necessary, however, I will use other texts as supplements. After an account of the two critiques, I will then consider similarities, differences, Hegel’s and Derrida’s reflections on the differences, and reflections on all of the above. What will emerge as a result of the encounter is the notion of chastened, fallibilistic dialectic and mediation: I learn from Derrida’s philosophically significant reflection but give a qualified nod to Hegel on the basic methodological, epistemological, and metaphysical issues. Metaphysics still remains actual and possible, but it is a humble metaphysics, aware of its own limits and roots in a life world of experience and language that can never be totally thematized.