The transcendental signified is a term used by Jacques Derrida and other deconstructivists to denote any signified that is not a signifier.
Appeals to any transcendental signified have the effect of inference to arrest (as the police of thought might arrest) the play of signifiers.
For Derrida, there is no transcendental signified, as all signified in one way or another turn to be caught in the game of signifiers. His opposition to the idea of the transcendental signified is central to his critique of the presence. Because the transcendental signified is the supposed absolutely ultimate present or (in other words) that which is fully and directly represented.
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