Notes on Deleuze's 'Logic of Sense' - Third Series of the Proposition
The events-effects outlined in series two have an 'essential' relationship to language - it is of their nature to be 'expressed or expressible.' However, in order to assess the nature of this relationship, Deleuze must now detail the relations within a proposition - one cannot merely say that the concept of the event is particularly suited to expression without defining the essential characteristics of expressivity.
(what does this mean for our concern over the anthropocentricism of events-effects? if they are expressible, and have an essential relationship to language, does not this mean they are conceptually tied to a human, all too human observer?)
The 3 distinct relations within a proposition:
1) denotation or indication - the proposition indicates a state of affairs external to itself. This state of affairs is 'individuated' by the proposition - delimited from its surroundings through a representational correspondence between the words used and the state of affairs the proposition intends to isolate. this indication takes the form of a "it is that" or "it is not that" - so we're not considering the actual "sense" of a proposition, what it seeks to express of the state of affairs in question, but the pure 'empty form' that is used for the selection of images. is this, then, the pure "relational" element of the proposition? its pure logical element?
These 'indexicals' (as Deleuze goes on to call them, following Benveniste) are not universal concepts but 'formal particularities.' Proper names can be included in this category but they have a 'special importance' in that they designate a 'properly material singularity' rather than serving to retroactively circumscribe the area of concern.
'Logically, denotation has as its elements and its criterion the true and the false.'
2) manifestation - this is the relation of the proposition to the person who speaks and expresses him/herself. it is a statement of desires and beliefs that correspond to the proposition.
[blegh, finish later]
(what does this mean for our concern over the anthropocentricism of events-effects? if they are expressible, and have an essential relationship to language, does not this mean they are conceptually tied to a human, all too human observer?)
The 3 distinct relations within a proposition:
1) denotation or indication - the proposition indicates a state of affairs external to itself. This state of affairs is 'individuated' by the proposition - delimited from its surroundings through a representational correspondence between the words used and the state of affairs the proposition intends to isolate. this indication takes the form of a "it is that" or "it is not that" - so we're not considering the actual "sense" of a proposition, what it seeks to express of the state of affairs in question, but the pure 'empty form' that is used for the selection of images. is this, then, the pure "relational" element of the proposition? its pure logical element?
These 'indexicals' (as Deleuze goes on to call them, following Benveniste) are not universal concepts but 'formal particularities.' Proper names can be included in this category but they have a 'special importance' in that they designate a 'properly material singularity' rather than serving to retroactively circumscribe the area of concern.
'Logically, denotation has as its elements and its criterion the true and the false.'
2) manifestation - this is the relation of the proposition to the person who speaks and expresses him/herself. it is a statement of desires and beliefs that correspond to the proposition.
[blegh, finish later]