Jacques Derrida (Derrida Jacque)

(p. 1930)
Born July 15, 1930 in El Beara (Algeria). He studied at the Ecole Normale Supц?rieure in Paris, in 1964 he began teaching philosophy. A notable figure in French philosophy of Derrida began in 1967 when he published three books: The Voice and Phenomenon (La Voix et le phnomne), Letter to the difference (L'criture et la diffrence) and Grammatology (De la Grammatologie). From 1968 to 1974, he constantly teaches at Johns Hopkins University, and after 1974 - at Yale University.
'Deconstruction' Jacques Derrida demonstrates how this or that philosophical position has been undermined and ruined by the text itself or in the discourse, his approving. Western philosophy, according to Derrida, is based on what he calls 'logotsentrizmom', according to which there is some instance the fundamental meaning, truth, logic (logos). This assumption generates a hierarchical distinction, . such, . as meaning / form, . essence / accident, . serious / frivolous, . literal / figurative, . transcendental / empirical, . where the first term is considered as the primary, . the second is derived, . complicating or drop the first,
. Deconstruct this opposition means above all to draw the hierarchy, . showing, . that the quality, . attributable to the second concept, . these are, . that it is the first concept should be interpreted as a variant of the second, . not vice versa: for example, . that there is literally nothing, . as a special case of a portable, . figuratively (literally 'forgot' about his figuratively),
.

The crucial example for Derrida is the case of speech and writing, which is discussed in Grammatology. Thinkers interpreted it as a natural, direct form of language and underestimated the letter, seeing it as a derivative form, substitute living speech. Thus, they were pushed into the background the most important properties of language, to establish his understanding of the idealized model of speech, particularly on the experience of his own speech, when the value appears directly present. A letter was left on the sidelines as an impersonal and empty vehicle records, but we can show, . that this seemingly empty repetition is the condition for the existence of any signs, . but the very question to be considered as a version of the letter - the letter in the generalized sense, . which is a precondition of speech, . and letters in the narrow sense,
. Such inversion undermines logotsentricheskuyu hierarchy and exposes those properties of language, which had been superseded and suppressed.

To sum up what Derrida did in his works, in the following five paragraphs. (1) Derrida demonstrates the vitality logotsentrizma in Western thought and the undecidability of its paradoxes, as well as the unlikelihood of overcoming it, because any criticism logotsentrizma relies ultimately on the notion logotsentricheskie. (2) Derrida points to the importance of the elements that seem marginal, and the dependence of systems from the fact that they displace and suppress. (3) Derrida develops the technique of interpretation, unusual for a philosophy, because it uses the resources of the rhetoric of the text, and productive for literary criticism, studies the language and its paradoxical. (4) Although Derrida does not propose his own theory of language, . his deconstruction of the other theories shows, . that the value is a product of language, . rather than its source, . and that it can never be quite certain, . as a result of contextual forces, . can not be limited,
. (5) Finally, the work of Derrida questioned the different concepts on which we are accustomed to rely, such as the origin, presence, I am human, showing that they have more results than pure givenness or base.

In his early works, Derrida examines the texts of Plato, Kant, Rousseau, Hegel, Husserl and Freud. In later works - Gla (Glas, 1974), Truth in Painting (La Verit en peinture, 1978) and post card (La Carte postale, 1980) - he experimented with designs that can be called literary rather than philosophical. His work - is a continuous study and challenge the borders of literature and philosophy.