Özne ontolojisi üzerine gramatolojik bir araştırma
A grammatological research on subject ontology
Yazar: ANIL ÜNAL
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. ÖZGE EJDER JOHNSON
Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi / Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü / Felsefe Ana Bilim Dalı
Derece: Doktora, 2020
Konu: Felsefe = Philosophy
Dizin: Dekonstrüksiyon = Deconstruction ; Gramatoloji = Gramatology ; Kendilik = Self ; Ontoloji = Ontology ; Ontolojik ben = Ontological self ; Transandantal felsefe = Transcendental philosophy ; Özne = Subject

Özet:
Bu tez gramatolojik bir zeminde öznenin ontolojik bulmacasını ele almaktadır. Bu çalışmada iki temel soruya işaret edildi:

1.	Gramatolojik bir zeminde öznenin anlaşılması nasıl mümkündür ? 
2.	Gramatolojik zeminin metafizik bir uslamlaması mümkün müdür? 

Tezin bütünü, bu metafizik zemini genel olarak idealist doktrinler çerçevesinde ele almaktadır. Öyle ki Berkeley'in idealist öğretisi, Kant'ın transandantal idealist felsefesi ve en nihayetinde de Bergson'un imge metafiziğinin karşılıklı okumaları bu metafizik zeminin radikal bir sorgulama sürecinden geçirilmesine ve böylece de ortaya konulmasına hizmet etmektedir. 

Gramatolojik bir zeminde çalışmak farklı alanlar arasında karşılaştırmalı bir çalışmayı davet eder nitelikte. Bu anlamda, tez psikanalitik kuramları ve paleontolojik bulguları da tartışmaya dahil etmekten çekinmedi. 

Tezin ilk ana bölümü özne kavramını metafizik bir zeminde tartışır ve transandantal öznenin Kant'ın kendi orijinal epigenesis kuramı üzerinden dekonstrüksiyonunu ortaya koyar. Tezin ikinci ana bölümünde tartışma psikanalitik bir perspektifte geliştirildi. Bu bölüm Jung'un eşzamanlılık ve Bergson'un zamandaşlık kavramlarının üzerinden gramatolojik zamansallığın nasıl ele alınabileceği meselesine işaret eder. Son bölümse öznenin mevcudiyetini paleontolojik alanda tartışır ve metafizik sorunsalı geneolojik kökeninde tartışmaya açar. 

Özne zamansal bir süreklilik içinde kendisini ben olarak adlandıran ontolojik bir yayılımsallık olarak ele alındığında, bu ontolojik yapının kurulumunda zaman metafizik anlamda kurucu bir rol üstlenmektedir. Öte yandan zaman kavramının kendisi Bergsoncu bir perspektiften sorgulamaya tabi tutulabilir. Bu sorgulama gerçekleştiğinde özne kurucu metafizik kavramını bir anlamda yitirmekte ve bu sayede de özneler arasılık, ve özne nesne ilişkisi anlamında sınırları bulanıklaşmaktadır.

Öznenin bu anlamda bir kırılganlık olarak ele alınabileceğinin ve hatta ancak böyle ele alınmasının gerekliliği Jungcu kuram ekseninde hali hazırda teklif edilmiş ve Bergsoncu zamandaşlık kavramının psikanalitik bir muadili olarak sinkronisite kavramı Jung tarafından ortaya konulmuştur. Zaman ve öznenin bu çerçevede ele alınması, kendisini tarihsel süreçte inşa etmiş bu metafizik yapının kökensel olarak nasıl ele alınabileceğinin ve aslında ne anlamda tek meşru, mümkün ve mevcut tasarımın bu olmadığına mağara resimlerinin sinkronistik anlam çözümlemeleri ile işaret edilmektedir.

Bu anlam çözümlemeleri, anlamın doğasının zeminine bu türden bir metafizik zemini koymanın bir keyfiyet meselesi olmayıp zorunlulukla mümkün anlam teorisinin ancak bu türden bir metafizik zeminde anlaşılabileceğine işaret etmektedir. Bu metafizik zemin üzerinde kendisini linear zaman akışı içinde ben olarak inşa eden öznenin nesne ile kurduğu ilişkiden, akışkanlık ve geçirgenlik kavramları üzerinden şekillenen bir özne tasavvuru önerilmektedir.

Tez, ele aldığı metafizik kavramları özne ekseninde inşa etmekten ziyade onları sorgulamak türünden dekonstrüksiyoncu bir üslupta yazıldı.

Anahtar Kavramlar: Ben, kendilik, özne, transandantal özne, dekonstrüksiyon

Abstract:
The present thesis discusses the ontological puzzle of the subject on a grammatological ground. Two main questions are addressed in this work:

1.	How is it possible to understand the subject on a grammatological ground?
2.	Is it possible to give a metaphysical argument for that grammatological ground?

The whole dissertation generally deals with this metaphysical ground through the framework of idealist doctrines. As such, the comparative readings of Berkeley's idealist doctrine, Kant's transcendental idealist philosophy, and finally, Bergson's image metaphysics serve to radically question and put forward the metaphysical ground in question. Berkeley's idealist doctrine is the thesis that denies the existence of material objects. Kant's transcendental philosophy puts forward that the subject is the ontological ground of idealist reality. And finally, Bergson's image metaphysics is a metaphysical theory that considers images as the only entities that we have access to.

Working on a grammatological ground also invites a comparative study of different fields. In this sense, the thesis does not hesitate to include psychoanalytical theories as well as paleontological findings into the discussion. 

Each chapter of this thesis, either implicitly or explicitly, discusses the ontological puzzle of the subject from the perspective of the following question: assuming that it is possible to understand the ontological reality on a grammatological ground, where does, or would, "I" stand in this conception of reality? At the same time, each chapter is based on the following strategy: rather than finding or constructing a stable and solid ground for "I", one should radically investigate that very ground. 

The thesis can be read as a collection of three, or four – including the introduction, interrelated essays. Here is a quick breakdown of the chapters that explains how they are connected to each other by tracing the reasoning that is developed here.

The main aim of the introduction is to put forward the origin of the thoughts and the discussion of this thesis, if it is really possible to find one – given that these thoughts can be understood as an anthology of a set of fluid impressions, which is revealed by the means of language, and consequently that any causal chain that looks for an "origin" as such are nothing but a collection of simultaneous images. But, assuming that such an origin could actually be found, Borges' A New Refutation of Time would be a good place to start since it indicates how the thesis tends to discuss the ontology of the subject, whilst also radically investigating, and at times, undermining it.

The first main chapter of the thesis discusses the notion of subject on a metaphysical ground and presents the deconstruction of the transcendental subject through Kant's own original theory of epigenesis. This chapter borrows from Bergson's way of thinking about the issue, and inquires about whether it is possible to have a metaphysics that goes beyond the idealist and realist conceptions of metaphysics. The option that is taken by this thesis is the Bergsonian metaphysics of images. Here, the argumentative maneuver is to analyze a certain conception of the fundamental identity of reality, representations and dreams on the ground of the metaphysics of images. At the same time, this chapter contributes to the present debate by providing a deconstructive reading of Kant's transcendental subject.

In the second main chapter, the discussion is developed through a psychoanalytical perspective. This chapter points at the issue of how it is possible to deal with the grammatological temporality via Jung's notion of synchronicity and Bergson's notion of simultaneity. This chapter borrows a Freudian mechanism from the Lacanian structural language and analyzes the subject by operating on Jung's theory of archetypes.

The theory of archetypes, metaphysically modelled and gramma-ontologically conceived by using Bergsonian images, encourages one to think of both extensionality and temporality from a different perspective. The second chapter is mainly interested in the metaphysical ground of such a different perspective. Hence, the chapter recalls the suggestion of synchronicity, which Jung puts forward as an alternative to causality, and traces the transcendental possibility of a principle of synchronicity, which precedes that of causality, by discussing Kant's theory of epigenesis. Ultimately, the main aim is to propose that the transcendental principle that establishes the subject as the essential ground for "I" is synchronicity in the light of Kant's epigenesis.

As far as these two chapters are considered together, they construct the ground and the language that can grammatologically handle the ontology of subject.

The main goal of the third chapter is to clearly articulate what can be said about the subject given the tools already acquired, i.e. the ground and the language that one gets from the preceding two chapters. This chapter surprisingly looks for and discusses the presence of the subject in an area to which one has the least access: the paleontological area. As such, it opens the discussion of the metaphysical problematic of interest on its very genealogical origin.

At the same time, the metaphysical theory that is put forward here, clearly points at that a temporally distant point can be logically nearer or more visible. An analogy with the psychoanalytic theory is useful to explain how this is the case. There too, the earliest experiences are clearly attributed a similar sort of importance. This is why, the third chapter prefers to discuss the presence and ontology of the subject by looking at the Paleolithic painter, rather than examining contemporary arts and literature.

However, this discussion is not only limited to a certain, perhaps anachronic, reading of the Paleolithic painter. For, it also connects this to modern works of poetry. In these old paintings, one can look for the transitivity of "writing" by looking at images and representations, and dreams and reality. Jean Clottes' conceptualization of "Homo Spiritualis" and the implications of this conceptualization shed light on the issue in this way, even though such a light also corrodes and blurs the limits of the subject, more than it illuminates it.

When the subject is considered an ontological extensionality that designates itself as "I" in a temporal continuity, time metaphysically plays a constitutive role in the setup of this ontological structure. At the same time, the notion of time itself can be investigated from a Bergsonian perspective. When this investigation is done, the notion of subject loses its constitutive metaphysical stance in a sense and thus, its boundaries with other notions such as "intersubjectivity" and "subject-object relation" tend to blur. 

It is already set forth that in this sense, the subject can, and in fact, should only be considered a vulnerability in the axis of the Jungian theorem and the notion of synchronicity, as a psychoanalytic counterpart of the Bergsonian notion of simultaneity, is put forward by Jung. The consideration of time and subject in this framework indicate how the metaphysical structure, which constructed itself in the historical process, can be treated in its origin and in fact, in what sense this is the only legitimate, possible and present conception through the synchronistic meaning analysis of cave paintings.

These meaning analyses signal that putting this kind of metaphysical ground on the center of the nature of meaning is not a contingent matter, but necessarily that the only possible theory of meaning can only be understood on this kind of metaphysical ground. On this metaphysical ground, the conception of the subject that constructs itself as "I" in the process of linear time is not only considered via the relation that it bears to objects, but also via the notions of fluidity and permeability that shape it.

As explained in the conclusion by appeal to Derrida and Bergson, the subject differentiates traces in space, whereas the image of trace in time is memory. In this sense, neither the nature and essence of the presence of the subject in writing nor the methodological presence of writing in the subject are surprising. The question of what the trace is asked from a metaphysical perspective and is answered primordially and illustratively. As such, the third main chapter explains what the paleolithic painter does when she paints those images in terms of spacetime formation. Grammatologically, what she does can be understood as recording time in an extensional and spatial way. However, in a Bergsonian sense, logical extensionality and physical extensionality are not distinguishable. Hence, one can say that the grammatological image of the trace is the sign.

Ultimately, the main purpose of this thesis is to answer the question of what this subject, whose grammatologically understood boundaries are corroded, is, or perhaps equivalently, what this subject, as soul and body, or as writing is. The subject can be understood as a soul image who equally sinks in the absolute extensionality of this metaphysical picture. Even though such image is borrowed from the aboriginal painter – instead of Aristotle, Kant or Jung – the conception of "soul" in question here can be symmetrically put with the conception of soul in the history of continental philosophy. The presence of soul, insofar as the aboriginal painter witnesses it, can be the agent who paints the painting: the agent who can distinguish themselves from others as signs that are essentially traces, and consequently the agent who can read and who can create traces, or simply the agent who performs the act of writing.

This thesis is written in a deconstructive way insofar as it critically investigates the metaphysical notions and their ground that it considers rather than constructing them in the axis of the subject.

Keywords: I, self, subject, transcendental subject, deconstruction.