“always already“

• toujours, déjà (French—Derrida)
• immer schon (German—Kant, Heidegger)
• it’s a bit dodgy to try to define, but basically (and not all-inclusively) what has not happened in the past is past; what has happened at present has always already happened in the present and the future
• To see it used by Derrida in context, read some of Of Grammatology.

“as if“

• als ob (German—Vaihinger, Kant)
• a seemingly very practical philosophy
• from Wikipedia: “In Philosophie des Als Ob, [Vaihinger] argued that human beings can never really know the underlying reality of the world, and that as a result we construct systems of thought and then assume that these match reality: we behave ‘as if’ the world matches our models.”

“thing in itself“

• Ding an sich (German—Kant)
• noumena—the thing as opposed to the physical actuality of the thing as experienced by the senses
• like Plato’s forms?

To read:

• Critique of Pure Reason
• Philosophy of As If
• a lot of Derrida

Take note:

• Noumena is a death metal band from Finland
• The Always Already is an indie rock band from Austin, TX

This entry was posted on October 27, 2008 and is filed under philosophy/religion, to read.