''Writing and Difference'' (french: L'écriture et la différence) is a book by the French philosopher

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 th ...

. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''

Of Grammatology ''Of Grammatology'' (french: links=no, De la grammatologie) is a 1967 book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The book, originating the idea of deconstruction, proposes that throughout continental philosophy, especially as philosophers en ...

'' and ''

Speech and Phenomena ''Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs'', or ''Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl's Phenomenology'', (french: La Voix et le Phénomène) is a book about the phenomenology of Edmu ...

''.

Summary

Cogito and the History of Madness

The collection contains the essay ''Cogito and the History of Madness'', a critique of

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...

. It was first given as a lecture on March 4, 1963, at a conference at the '' Collège philosophique'', which Foucault attended, and caused a rift between the two,Powell (2006), pp. 34–5 possibly prompting Foucault to write ''

The Order of Things ''The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences'' (Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines, 1966) by French philosopher Michel Foucault proposes that every historical period has underlying epistemic assumptions ...

'' (1966) and '' The Archaeology of Knowledge'' (1969).Carlo Ginzburg (1976), ''Il formaggio e i vermi'', translated in 1980 as
The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller
', trans. Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), xviii.

Violence and Metaphysics

In "Violence and Metaphysics," Derrida comments on the writings of

Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to ...

. He honors Levinas for his ethical philosophy of openness to the Other. Indeed, he goes along with the idea that to live for the Other is the highest good. But he challenges the idea that only

face-to-face interaction Face-to-face interaction is social communication carried out without any mediating technology. It is defined as the mutual influence of individuals’ direct physical presence with their body language and verbal language. It is one of the basic ...

can be ethical. Whereas Levinas sees written communication as dead and unresponsive, Derrida argues that writing can be just as valuable a space for ethical encounter. He writes, in characteristic support for writing: "Is it not possible to invert all of Levinas’s statements on this point? By showing, for example, that writing can assist itself, for it has time and freedom, escaping better than speech from empirical urgencies."''Writing and Difference'', 102

The Structuralist Controversy

Included in the collection is his 1966 lecture at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, which changed the course of the conference leading it to be renamed ''The Structuralist Controversy'', and caused Derrida to receive his first major attention outside France. The lecture is titled ''

Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (french: La structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines) was a lecture presented at Johns Hopkins University on 21 October 1966 by philosopher Jacques Derr ...

''.

References

{{Jacques Derrida 1967 non-fiction books Éditions du Seuil books French non-fiction books Works by Jacques Derrida Iran's Book of the Year