Jacques Derrida (1930-)
Jacques Derrida is a French philosopher whose critique of western
philosophy encompasses literature, linguistics and
psychoanalysis. Derrida's thought is based on his
disapproval of the
search for some ultimate metaphysical certainty or
source of meaning, which
has characterized most western philosophy. In his
works he offers a way
of reading texts, called Deconstruction
which enables the reader
to make explicit the metaphysical and a priori
assumptions used even by those
philosophers which are most deeply critical
of metaphysics. Derrida
eschewed the holding of any philosophical doctrine
and sought to analyze
language in an attempt to provide a radically alternative
perspective in
which the basic notion of a philosophical thesis is called into
question.
History
Born in Algeria, Derrida studied at the Ecole
Normale Superieure (read that with lots of
accents) in Paris where he later
taught the history of philosophy. From
1960 to 1964 he taught at the Sorbonne.
Movements
Post-Structuralism
Deconstructive Criticism
Writings
- In 1967 Derrida published: La voix and le Phenomene
(Speech and Phenomenology), a study of
Edmund Husserl, and L'Ecriture et la Difference
(Writing and Difference)
- In 1972 the works Marges de la
philosophie (Margins of
Philosophy) and La Dissemination
(Dissemination) were published
- His later works include Glas (1974), La verite en peinture (1978; The Truth in Painting),
La Carte postale (1980; The Postcard), L'Oreille de l'autre
(1982: The Ear of the Other), and Psyche: Inventions de
l'autre
(1987; Psyche: Inventions of the Other)
Influential People
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