Tracing Dao: A comparison of Dao 道 in the Daoist classics and Derridean “Trace”

• Main Author: BURIK, Steven
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Derrida; Trace; Daoism; non-metaphysical; transformation; East Asian Languages and Societies; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3118; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4375/viewcontent/Tracing_Dao_sv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper attempts to draw a comparison between Derrida’s idea of “trace” (in connection to his more famous ideas of différance, supplement, and deconstruction) and the idea of dao in classical Daoism (Laozi and Zhuangzi). I explore the viability of applying Derrida’s thoughts with regard to “trace” to Daoism. It is argued that if dao is read in a non-metaphysical way, then the Derridean idea of “trace” will show large overlaps with dao. I then try to show how, despite some obvious differences, a “trace” reading of dao enables a clearer understanding of dao that would see it not as a metaphysical principle, ineffable but transcendent nonetheless, but rather as an immanent working of the patterned processes that make up both the natural and human world. I also argue that the notion of trace in classical Daoism (ji 跡, literally footprints) or other characters denoting trace, are most often used in a more traditional way (as pointing to a lost presence) and hence are not useful for understanding what Derrida means with his notion of “trace.”