Besides/In a paradigmatic way

Abstract

This text starts with critique as that which does not rest content with the given, and starting here it embraces the task of critique as troubling presupposition. With indifference as a key issue, it is suggested that such troubling is what distinguishes critique from criticism; however, the distinction brings to critique what appears to be an impossible act — to take place without presupposition. Facing the demand that critique does not presuppose anything (including itself), attention is turned towards language, the presupposing of its existence and the presuppositional machine that operates within it. To act without presupposition can appear to be an impossible task for critique; however, the contention is that, in not presupposing anything, critique has to construct — the criticized, the critic and, moreover, itself. After delving into the paradoxical existence of the example (example simply means paradigm: that which shows itself beside) and showing that the example makes an exposition without presupposition, the proposition is offered that the activity of construction proceeds by way of a paradigmatic method. Taking inspiration from Plato's desire to reach an unpresupposed principle, the proposition is that, in not resting content with the given, critique constructs by means of paradigms.

Keywords:

• construction
• critique
• example
• indifference
• paradigm
• presupposition