I think the more we think about it, the more we realize that we only know what it is if we know the system that it belongs to, which is to say, all of the things related to it which it is not. Right?

你们越仔细想这一点，就越明白，我们只有知道事物所属的符号系统,才能认识事物，所有事物都是和同一符号系统中的反面相关的？

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

So it is always the case that I can only know what I know if it's a question of being communicated with, having something rendered intelligible for me, negatively.

所以我们总是这样地认识事物,我们和人交流时，总是被动地认识符号。

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If it were all the things that it's not, or if it were identical to all the things that somehow or another it's not, then I would be in a very difficult situation because I wouldn't have any means of knowing it in particular.

如果一件事就是它自身的反面，或者和其他的事物没有区分之处,那么我们，就很难认识它,因为我们没有办法认识它。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选