prolegomena.

    
           
  My 'thesis,' insofar as it exists and can be referred to in the singular3, is that consciousness in (post)modernity4 is consciousness deconstructed. I do not intend to ‘prove’ this thesis, so much as to outline how it proves itself. Modern thought and its progeny - beginning with the hermeneutics of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud - has progressively questioned the foundations of Western philosophy, to the point of irreversibly altering our conscious existence. The deconstruction of the conscious subject is the process which defines modernity. It is not a voluntary process, nor can it be in any way separated from consciousness itself. .

I argue, perhaps rather conventionally, that the hypostatic1 author-constructs of deconstruction - Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud - represent the ‘holy trinity’ of modern thought. What is the nature of this trinity, though? Which is pater, which filis, and which spiritu sanctu? What justifies this construct, and what are its implications?

This hypertext will explore some of these questions. It will answer some, and raise others. As always, the questions will likely be more useful than the answers2.

Since many of the writers with whom I will be engaging are notoriously resistant to paraphrase, I will for the most part be avoiding citations in my own text. Relevant quotations will be gathered in the left columns of the body of the work, and my own theoretical intervention will occupy the right. Notes and citations will be hyperlinked, so as to avoid unduly breaking up the flow of the work. Though I have suggested a potential configuration for the separate texts which structure my efforts, I have purposefully refrained from giving them any linear order.

By virtue of its digital nature, this work, like many others, occupies a peculiar space outside of time. It is certainly not complete as I write this self-[conscious, indulgent, referential, etc.] prelude, nor will it be complete as you, Hypothetical Audience, read it. 

As you proceed, think on how it might be different between now and when you will have finished reading it. What you have finished reading will perhaps no longer exist.

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