What Is A Mazeppist? (Part Eight)

It is not my intention to disparage (completely) Derrida's contribution to recent philosophy. He provided us with a potent reminder that, as Abrams put it in "Construing and Deconstructing" (1983), "...the communicative efficacy of language rests on no other or better ground than that both writers and readers tacitly accept and apply the regularities and limits of an inherited social and linguistic contract." Of course, for those who have been paying attention, Derrida's message was forcefully driven home by Gorgias of Leontini's (d. ca. 376 BCE) reply to Parmenides' poem "On Nature." Human beings are forgetful and easily bored; therefore, repetition is something of a tonic. Thank you, Jacques.

For these very reasons, it is important, again, in the present context, to remind ourselves that Existentialism is not, as it is often portrayed, a philosophy of nihilism--though nihilists and even, as Mailer suggests, "psychopaths" do, from time to time, find its tropes and symbols useful. This should come as no surprise: nihilists and psychopaths also find the tropes and symbolism of religious traditions useful (Virginia Tech's late Mr. Cho appears to have regarded himself as a kind of "Christ figure" and explicitly compared himself to Moses).

Existentialist hermeneutics explore the semantic openness of language. Such exploration ought not to be construed (necessarily) as an endorsement of any particular use of language. Existentialist hermeneutics are conducted in service to a particular conception of the ethical: one in which individual authenticity is articulated in terms of the limits upon human freedom. Linguistic openness bears a synechdochic relation to an Existentialist ontological ethic. As Wittgenstein remarked: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

In light of its emphasis upon human authenticity and human freedom and its literary involvement, Existentialism is an heir to Romantic philosophy--an observation which brings us full circle to where we started. It also points us in the direction we are headed. As Duncan Heath suggests in his splendid little book Introducing Romanticism: "Perhaps a new Romanticism will provide us with a way out of the impasse of postmodernism." The work of M. H. Abrams has quietly and modestly pointed the way to such a position for many years.