Book Title: Applied Philosophy of Anekanta
Author(s): Shashiprajna Samni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

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Page 143
________________ considered as primary and writing the secondary. They claimed, writing is like an orphan (cut off from the speaker) without the father. But Jacque Derrida(1931-2004) defended this by quoting, 'writing is prior to speech'. Derrida says- Language is Utterable. All expressions, utterances belong to some context and it is settled or fixed by the rules of convention. So language has no meaning independent of speaker. Because meaning of any language is determined by the rules of convention and writing represents fundamental features or characteristics of language. So language is something independent from human mind. Language has its own dynamic structure, independent of the speaker. In opposition, Noam Chomsky, says, 'structure of language is derived by the structure of human mind'. In the Book ‘Margin', Derrida says, to understand any meaning, sign is needed. In order to capture the meaning, we need language, not the speaker. Speaker speaks with the intention to convey something. Derrida says, we look into very structure of language independent of speaker. Austin, a well known Anglo-American philosopher, came with the theory of speech act. He says, when I use language, I do something, so language is not cognitive, but pragmatic. The important lesson that Derrida has derived from Austin is, 'Language is not used in relation to force.' He says, 'When I utter a sentence, what I intend to do, therein in lies force. In this sense, when emphasized on force, he deviated himself from western tradition. This is the innovation of Austin according to Derrida. Austin says, “When I use language, I use it to bring about a situation, that was not present.” When I use language, for example, I request. When I request, I create certain situation. Thus he concluded that speaker or speech does not represent anything but creates a situation. Derrida received this insight from Austin. Now we will consider in what way he departs from Austin. As already mentioned Austin insisted on force, and not on the link between 120

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