Blackwell Reference Online

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Jacques Derrida was an Algerian-born philosopher remembered for his development of deconstruction, an approach to thinking that seeks carefully to analyze signifying objects in terms of the differences that are constitutive of those objects. Typically, this deconstructive approach proceeds through a close analysis of the ambivalent and marginal terms that help secure the bounded understanding of a text, concept, or phenomenon, but which cannot be reduced to a final, stable meaning intended by the author or by orthodox interpretation. Derrida's writing has been attacked for both its difficulty and its supposedly nihilistic implications. Regarding the first charge, his work certainly reflects the density and complexity of the philosophical tradition from which it emerges, but there are numerous places in his later work and his published interviews that offer fairly straightforward summaries of his thinking. Regarding the second charge, Derrida worked hard to counter the common conception that deconstruction entails a kind of textual free play that inevitably leads to a moral and intellectual relativism. In fact, his work represents a scrupulous commitment to the practice of carefully reading any text (written or otherwise), which, above all, respects the probity of the text under consideration. Thus, though his work offers a general strategy for thinking about conditions of knowledge ... log in or subscribe to read full text