The Doctoral Thesis with Jacques Derrida as My Hero

58.2 (The Doctoral Thesis with Jacques Derrida as My Hero)
– Abstract –
The first chapter of this thesis (entitled The Dynamics of a Deep
Disagreement: Derrida and Ricoeur on Metaphor and Its Relation to
Philosophy) is an examination of four projects of clarification which are all
studies in one way or another of the deep disagreement between Derrida
and Ricoeur. The objective is to show how these studies as clarifying projects
simplify and even over-simplify the nature of this disagreement or, more
broadly, Derrida’s and Ricoeur’s both convergent and divergent discourses on
metaphor.
The following four chapters are the analysis proper of the dynamics of
the deep disagreement. These dynamics, being both ethical and
epistemological, are as much about the indirect as the direct encounters
between Derrida and Ricoeur. The second chapter analyses Derrida’s essay,
“La mythologie blanche,” as challenge to the tradition which Ricoeur, its
undeclared champion, must take up. Accordingly, the third and fourth
chapters are devoted to analysing how Ricoeur meets this challenge in La
métaphore vive.
While the third chapter is devoted to analysing Ricoeur’s indirect
encounter with Derrida’s project, the fourth is devoted to analysing his direct
encounter. The latter is essentially his critical analysis of “La mythologie
blanche” in the last study of La métaphore vive. In turn, Derrida responds to
Ricoeur’s critique with a polemic and an exposé of sorts in “Le retrait de la
métaphore.” Analysing how Derrida takes aim at Ricoeur through Heidegger
is the task of the fifth and final chapter.

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– Dedication –
To my Mother (December 12, 1921 – October 7, 2001)
I have no proper words for it,
no words that can match the fifty long years
of your absolute constancy.
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– Table of Contents –
Abbreviations .....................................................................................................................................................................ix
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter I.................................................................................................................................................................................13
The Commitment to Tell the Truth about Derrida and Ricoeur
on Metaphor as Project of Clarification
1.1 Leonard Lawlor’s Study in Imagination and Chance: The Difference
between the Thought of Ricoeur and Derrida (1992) ........ ......................................................13
1.2. Guy Bouchard’s Study in Le procès de la métaphore (1984)..............................33
1.3. S. H. Clark’s Study in Paul Ricoeur (1990)..............................................................................44
1.4. Giuseppe Stellardi’s Study in Heidegger and Derrida on Philosophy and
Metaphor: Imperfect Thought (2000)........................................................................................................53
Chapter II..............................................................................................................................................................................69
Derrida’s Commitment to Tell the Truth about Metaphor
as Indirect Encounter with Ricoeur’s Project
2.1. Derrida “versus” Ricoeur at the Montreal Conference on Communication
(1971) ............................................................................................................................................................................................72
2.2. Metaphor – in the Philosophical Text .............................................................................................78
2.3. “Improper” Argument and Analysis.................................................................................................82
2.4. “Proper” Argument and Analysis .........................................................................................................88
2.5. The Problem of the Concept of Metaphor: First Investigation...........................91
2.6. The Problem of the Concept of Metaphor: Second Investigation...................97
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