Measure and Obstruction in Derrida: What His Undecidables Attest

This paper carries onto the work of Jacques Derrida the test already applied to Lévi-Strauss's canonical formula of myths: does a topological point of view render classic philosophical statements intuitive, even tautological? Representation is modelled as the simplest one-sided closed surface, the cross-cap, where a measurement is the local crossing of two variances — what is observed and what is instituted. Two theses are maintained. Derrida's own double gesture (overturning, then displacement) is the canonical formula's double inversion — a term inverted, a term become function. And his undecidables (pharmakon, supplement, hymen, gramme, spacing) are the symptom of an obstruction in the strict sense: across three volumes, every one is a pair, never a triad, and their double value depends, as he writes, on syntax — the structure of a double covering, which is exactly what he invokes when he defines the undecidable by Gödel: tertium datur, without synthesis. Where Hegel, working with a single variance, never reaches a point of measurement, Derrida reaches every point and bars the gluing — a positive, non-substantial act at the one empty point of the figure. What he lacked was only to hold his residue for a magnitude — determinate, minimal, non-zero. Four refutable conditions are stated.This record contains the same paper in two versions: English (primary) and French (original). — Ce dépôt contient le même texte en deux versions : anglaise (principale) et française (originale).