M411

Phenomenology and Linguistics

an Amalgamation

In the conclusion of Modern French Philosophy [i] Robert Wicks parallels the historical course of French theory with concurrent changes in social outlook, additionally following the thread of existentialism as it periodically reappears.  To précis his précis - he begins with the 'death of God' and Nietzsche's philosophy of the 1880’s, as the precursors of change (prior to WWI) which led to the crisis of meaninglessness and intellectual movements such as Dada and existentialism.  This was followed by linguistic theory which managed to return some meaning to life, but in the artificial and non-authentic form of language as reality - which eventually caused a return of meaninglessness, and existentialism as its possible solution once more. 

To expand at greater length – Wicks describes the removal of God from Western mental space as the cause of a disturbing sense of isolation and vulnerability, the immediacy of death and the meaninglessness of being. Positively, it was also a release from the sense of being panoptcally observed, which lead to greater personal freedom and individuality, and the possibility of multiple interpretations of the world in place of one single truth.   The removal of God additionally lead to 'a positive release of previously stifled creative instinctual energies' which supported 'the positive recognition of non-rational, non-scientific, non-mathematical, and non-logical dimensions to human experience'.[ii]  These tendencies were evident in the intellectual trends of the time, including Dada and Surrealism, the Freudian unconscious and existentialism.  There was also a simultaneous increase of interest in language, which included Saussure’s formulation of linguistic theories in the early 1900’s, and his intention of creating a new 'science' of language called semiology.

Wicks draws attention to the interesting fact that the resulting French theory is an amalgamation between the linguistic outlook and the existentialist/phenomenological outlook, creating a fusion of the linguistic with the perceptual field.  This, he said, led to the reading and interpretation of the perceptual field as text, rather than allowing the perceptual field to present itself less analytically as earlier phenomenologists had done.  The linguistic over-categorisation that resulted from this amalgamation lead to a mode of consciousness neglectful of perceptual detail, ignoring physiologically grounded perceptions in preference for stereotyped classifications.  When language is believed to fully describe reality, no account is taken of the fact that a reliance on limited linguistic classifications limits our experience of reality.  'One is easily led to confuse the map of the territory with the territory itself'.[iii] 

From this Wicks draws an even more interesting conclusion, which is that this structuralist/linguistic outlook 'softens the pain of perceiving the meaninglessness of things by rendering them meaningful through the rich lens of language and established cultural significations'[iv] and he comments that since the 1950s French theorists have complained very little about the meaninglessness of things, because the existentialist, raw, physical, perceptual and meaningless world, has been re-supplied with multiple meanings in language, and between multiple voices. 

At this point however, just when it was safe to go back in the water, existentialism creeps back in.  Since interpretation of reality through language destabilises ideas of physical or perceptual 'truth', we are obliged to live a fiction, to live within an artificially interpreted and increasingly artificially created world of the imagination.  A 'hyper-reality' which, is becoming re-infested by existentialist dis-ease because our contemporary life of instant gratification through electronics, media and consumer-item abundance is increasingly apprehended as artificial, non-authentic and divorced from the inescapable realities of physical life and death.  In addition to the reappearance of existentialism Wicks believes that instant gratification also leads to political complacency and contentment, undermining people's interest in facing challenges.  The productive rationality of our electronic and consumer age also appropriates and uses anything as a means, including language itself, but instead of describing 'truth', language becomes a technology with which to conceal and create realities, influencing opinions and behaviour. The technological use of signs in this way obscures reality from us, presents confusing and conflicting versions of reality, and exposes us to forces that exercise an invisible control.  According to Wicks we consequently live in a contemporary form of surrealism that is unhealthy and disempowering, unlike the earlier forms that were associated with communistic and socialistic ideals.  The realisation of this continuous state of artificial reality has led to a recurrence of existential anxiety.

The inability of our culture to escape from this continuing existentialist anxiety is blamed by Wicks on 'the limitations of the quest for freedom that characterised much of 20th century French thought'.  He describes the quest for freedom as a 'negative' quest, of 'freedom from' oppressive forces – 'from' rationality, science, essentialist thinking, myths, social structures and language.  He feels that 'freedom to' would be more effective and practical, because it would be self-legislating, and more positive and productive than 'freedom from'.  He includes as the main practitioners of this type of thinking Foucault, Irigaray and Lyotard.[v]

Whilst I agree with many of his arguments, I ultimately do not feel that more positive and productive philosophies would eliminate existentialism in a culture that has this tendency. Existentialism surely arises from the awareness of one’s inevitable death and nothing will change this biological fact.  Wicks seems to be hoping that positive and productive philosophies will produce positive social and political change, but in my opinion nothing short of a change in Western consciousness would make a difference.  For many hundreds of years a belief in God, redemption and an afterlife has held existentialist anxiety at bay, but for many this is no longer an option.  However it could be that I misunderstand Wicks’ intentions and he does have such radical change in mind; he favours the writings of Foucault, who suggested in The Order of things. An Archaeology of Knowledge that humanity could fade from its central place in consciousness to its previous anonymity.  In such an event existential anxieties might also disappear.  As Foucault writes, 'man ... is an invention of recent date' and 'a change in the fundamental arrangements of knowledge' could mean that 'man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the sea'.[vi]

Internal Relationship to Work