In the 26th series of paradoxes in Logique du sens (1969), Gilles Deleuze distinguishes between an order of language (l’ordre du langage) and an order of speech (l’ordre de la parole). Events are what make language possible, says Deleuze. But language does not begin with events. In fact nothing has its origin in the order of language. There is, however, always something beginning in the order of speech. There is always someone beginning to speak. „Il y a toujours quelqu’un qui commence à parler.“
Deleuze is alluding here to a famous passage in the Critique of Pure Reason, where Kant says that our knowledge may commence or begin with experience, but “nevertheless does not […] originate […] in experience.” The reason for this, according to Kant, is that “our empirical knowledge” is “composed” of both empirical facts as well as a priori supplements.
A posteriori knowledge here, a priori knowledge there – and neither “can be distinguished from the other until long practice has made us attentive and skilled in differentiating between them.”
