Plato’s chôra through the lens of Derrida

Hannes Schumacher

SUNDAYS, weekly for 5 weeks, beginning July 6, 2025.
11 AM-1 PM Eastern US Time. See time zone converter.
A Zoom link will be provided on registration.

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION

Plato’s Timaeus is one of the most influential texts of all times, perhaps the first to present a strictly philosophical account of the creation of the world. Since Ideas are eternal, creation implies a sort of “bastard reasoning” according to which a demiurge gives shape to chôra/khôra  (χώρα), translated as “receptacle,” “matter,” or “place.”

In Plato’s dialogue, chôra is compared to a “midwife” and presented as the “womb of all becoming” which gave rise to a feminist interpretation and critique (Irigaray, Kristeva). In Derrida’s late essay “Khôra” (1993), it even goes beyond the gender binary, conflating the “third type” of Plato with a “third gender.” As John Caputo concludes: “khôra is not even a receptacle. Khôra has no meaning or essence, no identity to fall back upon. […] In short, khôra is tout autre [wholly other], very.”

In chôra we are, thus, to uncover a blind spot at the very center of Western discourse: the key to overturning Platonism is already hidden in the work of Plato himself. In contrast to a widespread opinion, Plato not only transcends Aristotle’s hylomorphism by pointing at Ideas beyond matter (the so-called universals); he also subscends it, by pointing at the stuff preceding any form (chôra). Put in contemporary terms, Plato’s chôra (and that of Derrida) not only goes beyond—or rather down below—post-Kantian correlationism (Meillassoux); perhaps it even challenges the plane of immanence (Deleuze & Guattari) by subscending the dichotomy of atheism and religion.

Facilitator: Having lived and studied all around the world, Hannes Schumacher works at the threshold between philosophy and art. He completed his MA in Berlin with a thesis on Hegel and Deleuze, and he has also published widely on Nishida, Nāgārjuna, chaos theory, global mysticism, and contemporary art. Hannes is the founder of the Berlin-based publisher Freigeist Verlag and co-founder of the grassroots art space Chaosmos ∞ in Athens, Greece. Recently, he has facilitated the following courses and groups at Incite Seminars: “Nishida Kitarō: The Logic of Place and the Religious Worldview”; “Who’s Afraid of Hegel: Introduction to G. W. F. Hegel’s Science of Logic”; “Chaos Research Group” (current); and “Reading After Finitude by Quentin Meillassoux”; “Deleuze & Guattari: What is Philosophy?“

Course MaterialsIn this seminar, we’ll delve into Plato’s original formulations in the Timaeus and then discuss one groundbreaking interpretation: that of Derrida. PDFs of both texts will be provided on registration.

Sessions
1) Introduction: Plato’s chôra in contemporary thought
2) Plato’s chôra in the Timaeus (48e – 53b)
3) Derrida’s “Khôra” 0 – I: Mise en abyme
4) Derrida’s “Khôra” II – IV: triton genos
5) Richard Kearney: “God or Khora?”