binary opposition

Claude Lévi-Strauss

is (i.e. Subject / object... materialism / idealism) always a way of naming a fundamental 'parallax gap' which requires that the tension between the two terms needs to be perpetuated rather than 'palliated'.

The great binary oppositions subject v. object, materialism v. idealism, economics v. politics are all ways of naming this fundamental parallax gap : their tensions and incommensurabilities are indispensable to productive thinking (itself just such a gap), provided we do not lapse into some complacent agnosticism or Aristotelian moderation in which 'the truth lies somewhere in between' ... provided, in other words, we perpetuate the tension and the incommensurability rather than palliating or concealing it. (''')

is a logical model that invites its own progressive mediation and overcoming.

that mythical thought always works from the awareness of oppositions towards their progressive mediation' and further that 'the purpose of myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction' (1955:440, 443).

is a mistaken notion that does not exist. In fact the connection between the two terms in an opposition is an utter fabrication. Vice has nothing in common with virtue, or freedom with slavery.

What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery beware of enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would thing you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For Vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. (epictetus 'sayings' 22)

is the means by which the units of language have value or meaning... each unit is defined against what it is not.

The binary opposition is the structuralist idea that acknowledges the human tendency to think in terms of opposition. For Saussure the binary opposition was the 'means by which the units of language have value or meaning... each unit is defined against what it is not.' With this categorization, terms and concepts tend to be associated with a positive or negative. For example, Reason/Passion, Man/Woman, Inside/Outside, Presence/Absence, Speech/Writing, etc. Derrida argued that these oppositions were arbitrary and inherently unstable. The structures themselves begin to overlap and clash and ultimately these structures of the text dismantle themselves from within the text. In this sense deconstruction is regarded as a forum of anti-structuralism. Deconstruction rejects most of the assumptions of structuralism and more vehemently 'binary opposition' on the grounds that such oppositions always privilege one term over the other, that is, signified over the signifier. https://newderrida.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/some-key-terms/# ftn5

is the means by which the units of language have value.

means by which the units of language have value or meaning... each unit is defined against what it is not.

binary opposition, n.All

binary opposition