Abstract

Theoretical structure cannot exist independently of content and thus cannot be developed by restricting analysis to discourse alone. Through analysis, content becomes theoretical structure and this becoming is its theoretical appearance. The need for content within theoretical structure is lost sight of in recent speculation on the history of thought by Derrida and Heidegger. Histories of nineteenth-century thought ought to make the development of theoretical structures rather than the structures themselves the object of analysis. Many nineteenth-century systems make the nature of theoretical structure identical with that of its content. This leads theoretical structure to become appearance. Many late nineteenth-century systems made becoming or force the content of a development of thought. To become theoretical structure, force would have to become something different from itself. A resulting theoretical structure can only be appearance