Questions tagged [derrida]
Jacques Derrida (1930 – 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher associated with a semiotic analysis called deconstruction.
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What does postmodernism say about Human Nature?
Chomsky who is anti-postmodernism believes humans have a nature which makes them inherently creative which can be achieved in a free society. This is in opposition to Foucault who talks bout the ...
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What are some examples of Derrida's Phallogocentrism and should language be evolved to overcome it?
I understand Phallagocentrism is privileging masculine traits when giving meaning to language. I vaguely understand what it means, since it's a discursive formation like Orientalism ? Where everything ...
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How did the french postmodernists and Rorty arrive to the same conclusion using different methodology?
Rorty founded pragmatism -> which is basically that words only get their meanign based on how they're used
French postmodernists on the other hand did different things all attacking Grand ...
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What do poststructuralists mean by "power legitimates itself"?
"The post-structuralists assert that in any culture power legitimates itself through its connection to the validating mechanism for truth claims."
How is it possible to use truth as an ...
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How can one argue against absolute Relativism while being a Postmodernist?
A common criticism of postmodernism by the misunderstood and its opponents is that postmodernism justifies absolute moral relativism. I.e The claim that any claim is as true or good as any other, thus ...
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Is it possible to reconcile the Enlightenment with post-modernism especially the work of Derrida?
I am referring to Derrida's response to Sokal where he claims his work does not criticize the Enlightenment.
However, given the enlightenment promoted the attitude that there existed truths, which ...
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How has Foucault and post modernism in general become the dominant lense of analysis in Western Academia and how do Hegelians and others oppose that?
I have read of the strong impact of Foucault (the most cited author ?) and post-modernist lenses in particular in Academia. From Edward Said's Orientalism to Spivak's work (which even doe was a ...
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What are some good easily understood books explaining the Postmodernist thinkers (Baudrillard, Derrida, Foucualt, Deleuze)?
I am talking bout books like Hegel: A Biography
by Terry P. Pinkard which makes his philosophy accessible. I am an engineering student and don't know a lot of theory but I have read Durant, The Second ...
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Did Freud really suggest translating the manifest into the latent to interpret it?
Is the bold section of the following text correct about Freud's hypothesis? Does it mean to use the manifest dream thoughts in order to find the meaning of the latent ones?
According to Derrida, ...
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How is the truth multiple things?
For the philosopher, the Truth must be a surprisingly intractable concept. Truth has been called subjective, relative and plural. Also intriguingly: Truth is relative and plural. Now I realize this is ...
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Regarding Derrida's "Aporias" and "waiting for the other"
I'm a newcomer to philosophy, I've been recently introduced by the vector of an English course.
In studying various works, I'm having particular difficulty with the following statement from Derrida's ...
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So much ad hominem against French continental philosophers and no true critiques -- can someone lead me to the right direction?
I continuously get awfully surprised to see so much hate and misunderstanding going around for the French philosophers of the 20th century, not only in academia, but on this forum, and elsewhere.
I ...
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Wittgenstein vs Derrida
Derrida and late Wittgenstein challenged the 'traditional' understanding of language. What is similar and what particularly different in their views of language? What materials shall I read, that ...
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1967: Philosophy
I am cataloguing "papers", "books", "ideas", "insights"... in Philosophy which become available in 1967.
Are you aware of some? If yes, please, share author, what {"paper", "book", "ideas", "insight",....
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Foucault and Derrida on spiritual liberation
Apart from his analysis of truth and power, when Foucault says...
...truth isn’t the reward of free spirits, the child of protracted
solitude, nor the privilege of those who have succeeded in ...
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What is Derrida's différance?
I am very perplexed by the concept of différance. Is it even a concept at all? I've had some sources saying otherwise. How should I interpret this?
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Readings of the Other?
I have come across the term 'the Other' several times while reading/watching videos of Zizek's/Derrida. While googling the answer to my question of what the Other is and represents is an option, I ...
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How to delve into Structuralism?
Any recommendations for someone who is interested in reading Structuralist writings and perhaps where to begin?
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What does "il n'y a pas de hors-texte" mean in philosophy and literary criticism?
Does the phrase "il n'y a pas de hors-texte" amount to the same thing in literary criticism and philosophy?
There's a lot of bad google hits on this phrase, and I haven't read On Grammatology [p158] ...
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Derrida and 'time is out of joint'
What is the deal with Derrida and the notion of time? Why is Derrida so obsessed with time and the famous phrase from Hamlet, "time is out of joint."?
I am reading Spectres of Marx, and am unable to ...
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What is erroneous about attacking someone's trying to understand how to live life?
Original Source: Michael E. Tigar BA JD (Univ. of California, Berkeley), “Defending,” Texas Law Review 74 (1995).
Source: p 196, How Can You Represent Those People? (2013) by Abbe Smith, Monroe ...
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Why is the formal essence of the signifier presence?
Why does Derrida say in his Grammatology:
The formal essence of the signifier, is presence; and the privilege of its proximity to the logos as phone is the privilege of presence
How does a formal ...
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What is the meaning of "using against the edifice the instruments or stones available in the house" in Derrida?
Can anyone help me with the meaning of this sentence?
"For Derrida deconstruction is "to attempt an exit and a
deconstruction without changing terrain, by repeating what is implicit
in the ...
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Can any signature be counterfeit?
Derrida in Signature Event Context" (1972) asks:
"Are there signatures?", responds, "Yes, of course, every day. Effects
of signature are the most common thing in the world" (SEC 20). And he
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In what sense must a gift be unconditional?
I've started reading a book in Derrida (and, later, Marion) on (God as) gift.
It claims that a gift has to be entirely unconditional, and I wondered in what sense this was really true.
Obviously a ...
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Did Derrida write a book on the subject of violence? [closed]
I could have sworn I saw, some years ago, a book on violence by Jacque Derrida.
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A question about the meaning of the term "metaphysics of presence"
In the term metaphysics of presence does presence refer to a physical presence or a presence of time?
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What philosopher said that knowledge is about discerning differences?
I have heard that knowledge is discerning differences or to that effect. For example, if all things are the same such that there is no differentiating qualities, we can't really speak of anything ...
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Were Derrida, Lacan, Freud involved in politics?
Were philosophers like Derrida, Lacan, Freud involved in any kind of political party, political movement or had any political ideas? or did they just had theories in fields like psychoanalysis.
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Is this description of "universal systems" with regards to Deconstruction valid?
EDIT : I have accepted an answer for the time being
I have accepted an answer to this question. The answer and subsequent comments exchange has given me some more insight into my question. It does ...
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Where does Derrida say that deconstruction and the existence of or belief in God are incompatible?
I am searching for a text I've since lost that I believe is a transcription of a conversation between someone and Derrida. The context may have been Heidegger's particular conception of philosophy and ...
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How does logocentrism entail metaphysics of presence?
Various definitions and explanations of logocentrism, in general and in context of Derrida in particular, seem to be either incomprehensible or logically invalid. The narrowest definition states that ...
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What does it mean to be responsible to the Other? How does our responsibility to the Other diminish an insistence on identity and self-hood? [closed]
This is a question I'm having a difficult time understanding for my Philosophy course. I know it has to do with Derrida and Levinas and I know it has to do with the ideas of the Same and the Other. ...
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Do durations really end?
Leading on from this question here. I am trying to construct an understanding of why Husserl and Derrida in Aporias might believe in immortality (though perhaps neither do.)
Do any of the ...
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Is deconstruction not a method because methodologies are mechanistic?
Deconstruction is a commonly used term in contemporary literary theory as well as philosophy. In Letter to a Japanese Friend, Derrida indicates that
Deconstruction is "not a method" and cannot be ...
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What is the definition of Derrida's term "dissemination"?
Derrida is hard to sum up but can someone define his notion of "dissemination" or does anyone know a good passage where he defines it? I know that Derrida writes on dissemination and has an original ...
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What is a sign?
Saussure wrote:
It is... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. It would form part of social psychology, and hence of general psychology. We shall ...
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How do I begin to understand Event & Possibility?
According to the SEP:
he tries to develop a metaphysics adequate to contemporary mathematics and science—a metaphysics in which the concept of multiplicity replaces that of substance, event ...
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What is the difference between Derrida's Deconstruction and Heidegger's Destruktion?
Derrida's deconstruction, as far as I understand it, is to critically examine values as embodied in binary situations like signifier and signified where there is an implicit hierarchy of value - one ...
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How does Derrida explain the possibility of meaningful communication and linguistic coordination?
Consider this passage on Derrida and meaning (from here):
The search for an 'essential reality' or 'origin' or 'truth' is futile, because
"...language bears within itself the necessity of its ...
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How does deconstruction differ from post-structuralism?
Derrida states that his use of the word deconstruction
first took place in a context in which "structuralism was dominant" and its use is related to this context. Derrida states that ...
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What are some alternative readings of Aristotle's remark "O my friends, there is no friend"?
Jacques Derrida's 1988-89 seminar on "The Politics of Friendship" centers itself around a quotation attributed to Aristotle, found in Diogenes Laertius (V, 1, 21) and later quoted by Montaigne ("On ...
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Why did Jacques Derrida call his theory "deconstruction"?
Deconstruction literally should mean "destroying something" or "tearing something apart" or something like that—something that is opposite to "construction". Why he has chosen this term for his ...
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