Christopher Charles Norris (born 6 November 1947)"Christopher (Charles) Norris" (2002). ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Gale. Retrieved on January 19, 2007. is a British

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Career

Norris completed his PhD in English at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 1975. After an early career in literary and music criticism (during the late 1970s, he wrote for the now-defunct magazine ''Records and Recording''), Norris moved in 1991 to the Cardiff Philosophy Department. In 1997, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor in the Cardiff School of English, Communication & Philosophy. He has also held fellowships and visiting appointments at a number of institutions, including the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

, and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He is one of the world's leading scholars on

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

, and the work of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

. He has written numerous books and papers on

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...

philosophy of music Philosophy of music is the study of "fundamental questions about the nature of music and our experience of it".Andrew Kania,The Philosophy of Music, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Spring 2014 edition, edited by Edward N. Zalta. The ph ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

and

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

. More recently, he has been focussing on the work of

Alain Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucau ...

in relation with both the analytic tradition (particularly analytic

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in people's ...

) and with the philosophy of Derrida.

Selected works

* ''Deconstruction: Theory and Practice''. London; New York: Methuen, 1982 * *
Inside the Myth: Orwell, Views from the Left
' (Ed). London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984 * ''The Contest of Faculties: Philosophy and Theory After Deconstruction''. 1985 * ''Derrida'' (Fontana Modern Masters). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987 * ''Paul de Man: Deconstruction and the Critique of the Aesthetic Ideology''. Routledge, 1988/2009 * ''What's Wrong with Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990 * ''Spinoza and the Origins of Modern Critical Theory''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991 * ''Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals, and the Gulf War''. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992 * ''Truth and the Ethics of Criticism''. Manchester University Press. * ''Resources of Realism: Truth, Meaning, and Interpretation''. Palgrave, 1997 * ''Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997 * ''New Idols of the Cave: On the Limits of Anti-realism''. Manchester University Press, 1997 * ''Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism: Philosophical Responses to Quantum Mechanics''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000 * ''Minding the Gap: Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Two Traditions''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000 * ''Hilary Putnam: Realism, Reason, and the Uses of Uncertainty.''. Manchester University Press, 2002 * ''Truth Matters: Realism, Anti-realism and Response-dependence''. Edinburgh University Press, 2002 * ''Platonism, music and the listener's share''. London: Continuum, 2006 * ''Badiou's Being and Event: A reader's guide''. London; New York: Continuum, 2009 * ''Re-thinking the Cogito. Naturalism, Rationalism and the Venture of Thought''. London; New York: Continuum, 2010 * ''Derrida, Badiou, and the Formal Imperative''. Continuum, 2012 * ''Philosophy Outside-in: A Critique of Academic Reason''. Edinburgh University Press, 2013

References

External links

Christopher Norris’ webpage at Cardiff UniversityAudio recording of Norris on the role of philosophy in relation to neuroscience at Cardiff 'Philosophy Cafe'CBC Podcast for the series 'How to think about science' with Christopher Norris discussing scientific realism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Christopher 1947 births Living people Dartmouth College faculty Deconstruction British literary critics Alumni of University College London Academics of Cardiff University English philosophers