How to Read the Derridas: Indexing moi et moi, Der und Der, me and me, this one and that one

Abstract

I would like to spare you the tedium, the waste of time [Je voudrais vous epargner l’ennui, la perte de temps], and the subservience that always accompany the classical pedagogical procedures of forging links, referring back to prior premises or arguments, justifying one’s own trajectory [l’autojustification d’un trajet], method, system, and more or less skillful transitions, reestablishing continuity, and so on. These are but some of the imperatives of classical pedagogy with which, to be sure, one can never break once and for all. Yet, if you were to submit to them rigorously, they would very soon reduce you to silence, tautology, and tiresome repetition. (Derrida 1985, 3–4; italicized French from French edition: Derrida 1984, 37)