Parousia comes from the Greek word for “presence”, “arrival”.
In the works of Jacques Derrida, we find a critique of the philosophy (metaphysics) of presence.
The history of Western philosophy has, in one way or another, been an attempt to define existence in terms of what might or may not be fully present.
Plato‘s philosophy is one of the earliest attempts to view existence as parousia (presence). Christian theology and philosophy represent such a late experience.
Everything we are aware of or can produce is only partially or momentarily present – it is nothing but a trace of what is always absent.
The transcendental signified is a way in which Derrida identifies the ideal arch of Western philosophy.
Central to his critique of this metaphysics is the perception of the incessant play of signifiers and the endless postponement of meaning.
