Documentality: Why It Is Necessary to Leave Traces

by Maurizio Ferraris, Richard Davies (Translator)

Overview

This books ushers in a new way of talking about social phenomena. It develops an ontology of social objects on the basis of the claim that registration or inscription—the leaving of a trace to be called up later—is what is most fundamental to them. In doing so, it systematically organizes concepts and theories that Ferraris's predecessors—most notably Derrida, in his project of a positive grammatology—left in an impressionistic state.

Ferraris begins by redefining ontology as a way of cataloguing the world. Before any epistemology can discuss the validity of scientific or nonscientific judgments, one faces a collection of objects, be they natural, ideal, or social. Among these, Ferraris focuses on social objects, elaborating a theory of experience in the social world that leads him to define social objects as "inscribed acts." He then uses this notion to interpret social phenomena, also in light of a systematic discussion of the concept of performatives, from Austin to Derrida and Searle.

Moving into considerations of the present technological revolution, Ferraris develops a "symptomatology of the document" that leads to a consideration of legal systems, finding in them original applications for his theory that an object equals a written act.

Written in an easy, often witty style, Documentality revises Foucault's late concept of the "ontology of actuality" into the project of an "ontological laboratory," thereby reinventing philosophy as a pragmatic activity that is directly applicable to our everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823249695
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	12/18/2012
Series:	Commonalities
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Maurizio Ferraris is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Turin. He is the co-author, with Jacques Derrida, of A Taste for the Secret.

Richard Davies teaches Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bergamo. His research interests are in logic and the history of philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Marriages and Years in Jail 1

1 Catalog of the World 7

1.1 Samples 7

1.2 Subjects 22

1.3 Objects 13

2 Ontology and Epistemology 55

2.1 The Transcendental Fallacy 57

2.2 Ontological Differences 84

2.3 Theory of Experience 102

3 Social Objects 120

3.1 Social Epistemology 121

3.2 Realism and Textualism 138

3.3 Objects, Acts, and Inscriptions 164

4 Ichnology 175

4.1 Registration and Imitation 178

4.2 Writing, Archiwriting, Thought 197

4.3 Genesis and Structure of Inscriptions 224

5 Documentality 247

5.1 Documents 249

5.2 Works 271

5.3 The Phenomenology of the Letter 281

6 Idioms 297

6.1 What Does a Signature Mean? 298

6.2 Le Style C'est l'Homme 305

6.3 Epilogue: Eleven Theses 316

Notes 321

Index 371

Editorial Reviews

"A clear, fast-paced, truly exciting book."-Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania

"Documentality re-energizes the traditional philosophical debate on realism by contextualizing this problematic within the field of new media and positioning it in the wake of the momentous philosophical contributions of Derrida and Foucault."-Alessia Ricciardi, Northwester University

"The most stimulating feature of the book is not so much that documents allow Ferraris to develop an ontology, but rather that his ontology allows him to understand and to help us to understand what documents are and what society is."-Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose

"The growth of modern civilization depends to a surprising degree on the power of documents. Law, commerce, science, government all depend on documents to transcend the constraints of pre-modern, face-to-face communication. Yet documents, thus far, have played only a tiny role in the work of social ontologists. Maurizio Ferraris shows in this brilliant new work how documents can be used as a springboard for an entirely new view of the structure of social reality — in which documents form the very tracks along which the engines of our mental and social lives run." -Barry Smith, Director of the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR)

From the Publisher

Documentality re-energizes the traditional philosophical debate on realism by contextualizing this problematic within the field of new media and positioning it in the wake of the momentous philosophical contributions of Derrida and Foucault.

Northwestern University - Alessia Ricciardi

A clear, fast-paced, truly exciting book."

University of Pennsylvania - Jean-Michel Rabaté

The most stimulating feature of the book is not so much that documents allow Ferraris to develop an ontology, but rather that his ontology allows him to understand and to help us to understand what documents are and what society is."

author of The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The growth of modern civilization depends to a surprising degree on the power of documents. Law, commerce, science, government all depend on documents to transcend the constraints of pre-modern, face-to-face communication. Yet documents, thus far, have played only a tiny role in the work of social ontologists. Maurizio Ferraris shows in this brilliant new work how documents can be used as a springboard for an entirely new view of the structure of social reality — in which documents form the very tracks along which the engines of our mental and social lives run.

Director of the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) - Barry Smith