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Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of
deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...
, which he utilized in a number of his texts, and which was developed through close readings of the linguistics of
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
and Husserlian and Heideggerian
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
. He is one of the major figures associated with
post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
and
postmodern philosophy Postmodern philosophy is a philosophy, philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in Modernism#Origins, modernist philosophical ideas regarding culture, identit ...
Vincent B. Leitch ''Postmodernism: Local Effects, Global Flows'', SUNY Series in Postmodern Culture (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996), p. 27. although he distanced himself from post-structuralism and disavowed the word "postmodernity". During his career, Derrida published over 40 books, together with hundreds of essays and public presentations. He has had a significant influence on the
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
and
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s, including philosophy, literature,
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
,
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
,
applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...
,
sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
,
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
,
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
, architecture, and
political theory Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...
. Into the 2000s, his work retained major academic influence throughout the United States,
continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...
, South America and all other countries where
continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...
has been predominant, particularly in debates around
ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...
,
epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
(especially concerning
social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
), ethics,
aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
,
hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...
, and the
philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...
. For the last two decades of his life, Derrida was Professor in Humanities at the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
. In most of the
Anglosphere The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, is a Western-led sphere of influence among the Anglophone countries. The core group of this sphere of influence comprises five developed countries that maintain close social, cultura ...
, where
analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...
is dominant, Derrida's influence is most presently felt in
literary studies A genre of arts criticism, 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 analysis of literature's ...
due to his longstanding interest in language and his association with prominent literary critics. He also influenced architecture (in the form of
deconstructivism Deconstructivism is a postmodern architecture, postmodern architectural movement which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, ...
), music (especially in the musical atmosphere of
hauntology Hauntology (a portmanteau of '' haunting'' and ''ontology'', also spectral studies, spectralities, or the spectral turn) is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or cultural past, as if to haunt the ...
), art,E.g., "Doris Salcedo", Phaidon (2004), "Hans Haacke", Phaidon (2000). and
art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...
.E.g. "The return of the real", Hal Foster, October – MIT Press (1996); "Kant after Duchamp", Thierry de Duve, October – MIT Press (1996); "Neo-Avantgarde and Cultural Industry – Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975", Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, October – MIT Press (2000); "Perpetual Inventory", Rosalind E. Krauss, October – MIT Press, 2010. Particularly in his later writings, Derrida addressed ethical and political themes in his work. Some critics consider '' Speech and Phenomena'' (1967) to be his most important work, while others cite ''
Of Grammatology ''Of Grammatology'' () 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 engaged with linguistic and semiotic id ...
'' (1967), ''
Writing and Difference ''Writing and Difference'' () is a book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''Of Grammatology'' and '' Speech and Phen ...
'' (1967), and '' Margins of Philosophy'' (1972). These writings influenced various activists and political movements. He became a well-known and influential public figure, while his approach to philosophy and the notorious abstruseness of his work made him controversial.Lawlor, Leonard
"Jacques Derrida"
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''. plato.stanford.edu. 22 November 2006; last modified 6 October 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2017.


Early life and education

Derrida was born on 15 July 1930, in a summer home in
El Biar El Biar (from Arabic "الأبيار", meaning "The Wells") is a suburb of Algiers, Algeria. It is located in the daïra#Algeria, administrative constituency of Bouzaréah in the Algiers Province. As of the 1998 census, it has a population of 52, ...
(
Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
), Algeria, to Haïm Aaron Prosper Charles (known as "Aimé") Derrida (1896–1970), who worked all his life for the wine and spirits company Tachet, including as a travelling salesman (his son reflected the job was "exhausting" and "humiliating", his father forced to be a "docile employee" to the extent of waking early to do the accounts at the dining-room table), and Georgette Sultana Esther (1901–1991), daughter of Moïse Safar. His family was
Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
(originally from Toledo) and became French in 1870 when the
Crémieux Decree The Crémieux Decree (; ) was a law that granted French citizenship to the majority of the Jewish population in French Algeria (around 35,000), signed by the Government of National Defense on 24 October 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. It was ...
granted full French citizenship to the Jews of Algeria. His parents named him "Jackie", "which they considered to be an American name", although he would later adopt a more "correct" version of his first name when he moved to Paris; some reports indicate that he was named Jackie after the American child actor
Jackie Coogan John Leslie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his film career as a child actor in silent films. Coogan's role in Charlie Chaplin's film ''The Kid (1921 film), The Kid'' (1921) made him one o ...
, who had become well known around the world via his role in the 1921
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
film ''The Kid''.Powell (2006), p. 12. He was also given the middle name
Élie Élie is the French equivalent of "Elie (given name), Elie", "Elias" or "Elijah."''The Complete Baby Name Book'' 1989 Page 92 "It was revived in the seventeenth century by the Puritans, and is still used, especially by religious Protestant familie ...
after his paternal uncle Eugène Eliahou, at his
circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...
; this name was not recorded on his birth certificate unlike those of his siblings, and he would later call it his "hidden name". Derrida was the third of five children. His elder brother Paul Moïse died at less than three months old, the year before Derrida was born, leading him to suspect throughout his life his role as a replacement for his deceased brother. Derrida spent his youth in Algiers and in El-Biar. On the first day of the school year in 1942, French administrators in Algeria—implementing
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
quotas set by the
Vichy Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789. Known f ...
government—expelled Derrida from his
lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...
. He secretly skipped school for a year rather than attend the Jewish lycée formed by displaced teachers and students, and also took part in numerous
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
competitions (he dreamed of becoming a professional player). In this adolescent period, Derrida found in the works of philosophers and writers (such as
Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher ('' philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects ...
,
Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...
, and Gide) an instrument of revolt against family and society. His reading also included Camus and
Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French ph ...
. In the late 1940s, he attended the , in Algiers; in 1949 he moved to Paris, attending the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...
, where his professor of philosophy was Étienne Borne. At that time he prepared for his entrance exam to the prestigious
École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
(ENS); after failing the exam on his first try, he passed it on the second, and was admitted in 1952. On his first day at ENS, Derrida met
Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...
, with whom he became friends. A professor of his, Jan Czarnecki, was a progressive
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
who would become a signer of the
Manifesto of the 121 The Manifesto of the 121 (), was an open letter signed by 121 intellectuals and published on 6 September 1960 in the magazine ''Vérité-Liberté''. It called on the French government, then headed by the Gaullist Michel Debré, and public opi ...
. After visiting the Husserl Archive in
Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...
, Belgium (1953–1954), he completed his master's degree in philosophy (') on
Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
. He then passed the highly competitive ''
agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...
'' exam in 1956. Derrida received a grant for studies at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, and he spent the 1956–57 academic year reading
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's '' Ulysses'' at the
Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books, is the centerpiece of the Harvard Library system. It honors 1907 Harvard College graduate and book collector Harry Elkins Widener, and was built by his mother Eleanor Elki ...
.Caputo (1997), p. 25.


Career

During the
Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
of 1954–1962, Derrida asked to teach soldiers' children in lieu of military service, teaching French and English from 1957 to 1959. Following the war, from 1960 to 1964, Derrida taught philosophy at the Sorbonne, where he was an assistant of Suzanne Bachelard (daughter of
Gaston Bachelard Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacle'' and ''Epist ...
),
Georges Canguilhem Georges Canguilhem (; ; 4 June 1904 – 11 September 1995) was a French philosopher and physician who specialized in epistemology and the philosophy of science (in particular, philosophy of biology, biology). Life and work Canguilhem entered t ...
,
Paul Ricœur Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur (; ; 27 February 1913 – 20 May 2005) was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneut ...
(who in these years coined the term '' hermeneutics of suspicion''), and Jean Wahl. His wife, Marguerite, gave birth to their first child, Pierre, in 1963. In 1964, on the recommendation of
Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...
and Jean Hyppolite, Derrida got a permanent teaching position at the ENS, which he kept until 1984. In 1965 Derrida began an association with the '' Tel Quel'' group of literary and philosophical theorists, which lasted for seven years.Powell (2006), p. 58. Derrida's subsequent distance from the ''Tel Quel'' group, after 1971, was connected to his reservations about their embrace of
Maoism Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
and of the Chinese
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
. With "
Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" () was a lecture presented at Johns Hopkins University on 21 October 1966 by philosopher Jacques Derrida. The lecture was then published in 1967 as chapter ten of ''Writing and Diff ...
", his contribution to a 1966 colloquium on
structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...
at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, his work began to gain international prominence. At the same colloquium Derrida would meet
Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
and Paul de Man, the latter an important interlocutor in the years to come. A second son, Jean, was born in 1967. In the same year, Derrida published his first three books—''
Writing and Difference ''Writing and Difference'' () is a book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''Of Grammatology'' and '' Speech and Phen ...
'', '' Speech and Phenomena'', and ''
Of Grammatology ''Of Grammatology'' () 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 engaged with linguistic and semiotic id ...
''. In 1980, he received his first
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
(from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
) and was awarded his
State doctorate State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
(''doctorat d'État'') by submitting to the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
ten of his previously published books in conjunction with a defense of his intellectual project under the title "L'inscription de la philosophie : Recherches sur l'interprétation de l'écriture" ("Inscription in Philosophy: Research on the Interpretation of Writing").Powell (2006), p. 145. The text of Derrida's defense was based on an abandoned draft
doctoral thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
he had prepared in 1957 under the direction of Jean Hyppolite at the ENS entitled "The Ideality of the Literary Object" ("L'idéalité de l'objet littéraire"); his 1980 dissertation was subsequently published in English translation as "The Time of a Thesis: Punctuations". In 1983 Derrida collaborated with Ken McMullen on the film '' Ghost Dance''. Derrida appears in the film as himself and also contributed to the script. Derrida traveled widely and held a series of visiting and permanent positions. Derrida became full professor (') at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris from 1984 (he had been elected at the end of 1983). With
François Châtelet Michel François Jacques Châtelet (; April 27, 1925 – December 26, 1985) was a historian of philosophy and political philosophy, philosopher and professor in the socratic tradition. He was the husband of philosopher Noëlle Châtelet. Châ ...
and others he in 1983 co-founded the
Collège international de philosophie The Collège international de philosophie (; CIPh), located in Paris' 5th arrondissement, is a tertiary education institute placed under the trusteeship of the French government department of research and chartered under the French 1901 Law on asso ...
(CIPH; 'International college of philosophy'), an institution intended to provide a location for philosophical research which could not be carried out elsewhere in the academia. He was elected as its first president. In 1985
Sylviane Agacinski Sylviane Agacinski-Jospin (; born 4 May 1945) is a French philosopher, feminist, author, professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), and wife of Lionel Jospin, former Prime Minister of France. Her theoretical articul ...
gave birth to Derrida's third child, Daniel."Obituary: Jacques Derrida"
by Derek Attridge and Thomas Baldwin, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 11 October 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
On 8 May 1985, Derrida was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, to Class IV – Humanities, Section 3 -Criticism and Philology. In 1986 Derrida became Professor of the Humanities at the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, where he taught until shortly before his death in 2004. His papers were filed in the university archives. When Derrida's colleague, Dragan Kujundzic, was accused of sexual assault, Derrida wrote a letter to then-Chancellor Cicerone saying "if the scandalous procedure" against Kujundzic was not "interrupted or cancelled," he would end all his "relations with UCI." Regarding his archival papers, there would be "another consequence: since I never take back what I have given, my papers would of course remain the property of UCI and the Special Collections department of the library. However, it goes without saying that the spirit in which I contributed to the constitution of these archives (which is still underway and growing every year) would have been seriously damaged. Without renouncing my commitments, I would regret having made them and would reduce their fulfillment to the barest minimum." After Derrida's death, his widow and sons said they wanted copies of UCI's archives shared with the Institute of Contemporary Publishing Archives in France. The university had sued in an attempt to get manuscripts and correspondence from Derrida's widow and children that it believed the philosopher had promised to UC Irvine's collection, although it dropped the suit in 2007. Derrida was a regular visiting professor at several other major American and European universities, including
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
,
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
,
Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
,
The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
, and European Graduate School. He was awarded honorary doctorates by the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
(1992),
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
,
The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
, the
University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...
,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...
, the University of Silesia, the
University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...
, the
University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...
, and many others around the world. In 2001, he received the Adorno-Preis from the University of Frankfurt. Derrida's honorary degree at Cambridge was protested by leading philosophers in the analytic tradition. Philosophers including
Quine Quine may refer to: * Quine (computing), a program that produces its source code as output * Quine's paradox, in logic * Quine (surname), people with the surname ** Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000), American philosopher and logician See al ...
, Marcus, and Armstrong wrote a letter to the university objecting that "Derrida's work does not meet accepted standards of clarity and rigour," and "Academic status based on what seems to us to be little more than semi-intelligible attacks upon the values of reason, truth, and scholarship is not, we submit, sufficient grounds for the awarding of an honorary degree in a distinguished university". Late in his life, Derrida participated in making two biographical documentaries, ''D'ailleurs, Derrida'' (''Derrida's Elsewhere'') by Safaa Fathy (1999), and ''
Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
'' by
Kirby Dick Kirby Bryan Dick (born August 23, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Best Docume ...
and Amy Ziering Kofman (2002). On 19 February 2003, with the 2003 invasion of Iraq impending, moderated a debate entitled "Pourquoi La Guerre Aujourd'hui?" between Derrida and Jean Baudrillard, co-hosted by ''Major's Institute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanalysis'' and '' Le Monde Diplomatique''. The debate discussed the relation between terrorist attacks and the invasion.


Personal life and death

In June 1957, he married the psychoanalyst Marguerite Aucouturier in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. Derrida was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
in 2002. He died during surgery in a hospital in Paris in the early hours of 9 October 2004. At the time of his death, Derrida had agreed to go for the summer to
University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
as holder of the Gadamer professorship, whose invitation was expressed by the hermeneutic philosopher himself before his death. Peter Hommelhoff, Rector at Heidelberg at that time, would summarize Derrida's place as: "Beyond the boundaries of philosophy as an academic discipline he was a leading intellectual figure not only for the humanities but for the cultural perception of a whole age."


Philosophy

Derrida referred to himself as a historian.Derrida (1989) ''This Strange Institution Called Literature'', p. 54: He questioned assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition and also more broadly
Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
. By questioning the dominant discourses, and trying to modify them, he attempted to democratize the university scene and to politicize it.Derrida (1992) ''Cambridge Review'', pp. 404, 408–13. Derrida called his challenge to the assumptions of
Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
"
deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...
". On some occasions, Derrida referred to deconstruction as a radicalization of a certain spirit of
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
. With his detailed readings of works from Plato to Rousseau to Heidegger, Derrida frequently argues that Western philosophy has uncritically allowed metaphorical depth models to govern its conception of language and consciousness. He sees these often unacknowledged assumptions as part of a "metaphysics of presence" to which philosophy has bound itself. This "logocentrism", Derrida argues, creates "marked" or hierarchized binary oppositions that have an effect on everything from the conception of speech's relation to writing to the understanding of racial difference. Deconstruction is an attempt to expose and undermine such "metaphysics". Derrida approaches texts as constructed around binary oppositions which all speech has to articulate if it intends to make any sense whatsoever. This approach to text is, in a broad sense, influenced by the
semiology Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...
of
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
. Nicholas Royle (2004)
''Jacques Derrida''
pp. 62–63.
Derrida and Ferraris (1997), p. 76: Saussure, considered to be one of the fathers of
structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...
, posited that terms get their meaning in reciprocal determination with other terms inside language. Perhaps Derrida's most quoted and famous assertion, which appears in an essay on
Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher ('' philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects ...
in his book ''
Of Grammatology ''Of Grammatology'' () 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 engaged with linguistic and semiotic id ...
'' (1967),Derrida (1967) ''Of Grammatology'', Part II: "Introduction to the "Age of Rousseau," section 2 "...That Dangerous Supplement...", title "The Exorbitant. Question of Method", pp. 158–59, 163. is the statement that "there is no outside-text" (). Critics of Derrida have been often accused of having mistranslated the phrase in French to suggest he had written "" ("There is nothing outside the text") and of having widely disseminated this translation to make it appear that Derrida is suggesting that nothing exists but words.Reilly, Brian J. (2005) ''Jacques Derrida'', in Kritzman (2005), p. 500. Coward, Harold G. (1990
''Derrida and Indian philosophy''
pp. 83, 137.
Pidgen, Charles R. (1990) ''On a Defence of Derrida'', i
''The Critical review''
(1990), Issues 30–32, pp. 40–41.
Sullivan, Patricia (2004)

in ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', 10 October 2004, p. C11. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
Derrida once explained that this assertion "which for some has become a sort of slogan, in general so badly understood, of deconstruction ... means nothing else: there is nothing outside context. In this form, which says exactly the same thing, the formula would doubtless have been less shocking."Derrida (1988) ''Afterword'', p. 136.


Early works

Derrida began his career examining the limits of
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
. His first lengthy academic manuscript, written as a dissertation for his and submitted in 1954, concerned the work of
Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
. Gary Banham has said that the dissertation is "in many respects the most ambitious of Derrida's interpretations with Husserl, not merely in terms of the number of works addressed but also in terms of the extraordinarily focused nature of its investigation." In 1962 he published ''Edmund Husserl's Origin of Geometry: An Introduction'', which contained his own translation of Husserl's essay. Many elements of Derrida's thought were already present in this work. In the interviews collected in '' Positions'' (1972), Derrida said: Derrida first received major attention outside France with his lecture, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," delivered at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
in 1966 (and subsequently included in ''Writing and Difference''). The conference at which this paper was delivered was concerned with
structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...
, then at the peak of its influence in France, but only beginning to gain attention in the United States. Derrida differed from other participants by his lack of explicit commitment to structuralism, having already been critical of the movement. He praised the accomplishments of structuralism but also maintained reservations about its internal limitations; this has led US academics to label his thought as a form of
post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
.Bensmaïa, Réda, "Poststructuralism", in Kritzman (2005), pp. 92–93.Poster (1988), pp. 5–6. The effect of Derrida's paper was such that by the time the conference proceedings were published in 1970, the title of the collection had become ''The Structuralist Controversy''. The conference was also where he met Paul de Man, who would be a close friend and source of great controversy, as well as where he first met the French psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
, with whose work Derrida had a mixed relationship.


Phenomenology vs structuralism debate (1959)

In the early 1960s, Derrida began speaking and writing publicly, addressing the most topical debates at the time. One of these was the new and increasingly fashionable movement of
structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...
, which was being widely favoured as the successor to the
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
approach, the latter having been started by Husserl sixty years earlier. Derrida's countercurrent take on the issue, at a prominent international conference, was so influential that it reframed the discussion from a celebration of the triumph of structuralism to a "phenomenology vs structuralism debate". Phenomenology, as envisioned by Husserl, is a method of philosophical inquiry that rejects the rationalist bias that has dominated Western thought since
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
in favor of a method of reflective attentiveness that discloses the individual's "lived experience"; for those with a more phenomenological bent, the goal was to understand experience by comprehending and describing its genesis, the process of its emergence from an origin or event. For the structuralists, this was a false problem, and the "depth" of experience could in fact only be an effect of structures which are not themselves experiential. In that context, in 1959, Derrida asked the question: Must not structure have a genesis, and must not the origin, the point of genesis, be ''already'' structured, in order to be the genesis ''of'' something? In other words, every structural or "synchronic" phenomenon has a history, and the structure cannot be understood without understanding its genesis. At the same time, in order that there be movement or potential, the origin cannot be some pure unity or simplicity, but must already be articulated—complex—such that from it a "diachronic" process can emerge. This original complexity must not be understood as an original ''positing'', but more like a default of origin, which Derrida refers to as iterability, inscription, or textuality.Derrida (1971), Scarpetta interview, quote from pp. 77–8: It is this thought of originary complexity that sets Derrida's work in motion, and from which all of its terms are derived, including "deconstruction". Derrida's method consisted in demonstrating the forms and varieties of this originary complexity, and their multiple consequences in many fields. He achieved this by conducting thorough, careful, sensitive, and yet transformational readings of philosophical and literary texts, to determine what aspects of those texts run counter to their apparent systematicity (structural unity) or intended sense (authorial genesis). By demonstrating the
aporia In philosophy, an aporia () is a conundrum or state of puzzlement. In rhetoric, it is a declaration of doubt, made for rhetorical purpose and often feigned. The notion of an aporia is principally found in ancient Greek philosophy, but it also p ...
s and ellipses of thought, Derrida hoped to show the infinitely subtle ways in which this originary complexity, which by definition cannot ever be completely known, works its structuring and destructuring effects.


1967–1972

Derrida's interests crossed disciplinary boundaries, and his knowledge of a wide array of diverse material was reflected in the three collections of work published in 1967: '' Speech and Phenomena'', ''
Of Grammatology ''Of Grammatology'' () 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 engaged with linguistic and semiotic id ...
'' (initially submitted as a thesis under Maurice de Gandillac),Alan D. Schrift (2006) ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers'', Blackwell Publishing, p. 120. and ''
Writing and Difference ''Writing and Difference'' () is a book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''Of Grammatology'' and '' Speech and Phen ...
''.Derrida (1967) interview with Henri Ronse, pp. 4–5: On several occasions, Derrida has acknowledged his debt to
Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in ...
and
Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language. In April ...
, and stated that without them he would not have said a single word.Derrida (1967) interview with Henri Ronse, p. 8.On the influence of Heidegger, Derrida claims in his "Letter to a Japanese Friend" (''Derrida and différance'', eds. Robert Bernasconi and David Wood) that the word "déconstruction" was his attempt both to translate and re-appropriate for his own ends the Heideggerian terms ''Destruktion'' and ''Abbau'', via a word from the French language, the varied senses of which seemed consistent with his requirements. This relationship with the Heideggerian term was chosen over the Nietzschean term "demolition," as Derrida shared Heidegger's interest in renovating philosophy. Among the questions asked in these essays are "What is 'meaning', what are its historical relationships to what is purportedly identified under the rubric 'voice' as a value of presence, presence of the object, presence of meaning to consciousness, self-presence in so called living speech and in self-consciousness?" In another essay in ''Writing and Difference'' entitled "Violence and Metaphysics: An Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas", the roots of another major theme in Derrida's thought emerge: the Other as opposed to the Same "Deconstructive analysis deprives the present of its prestige and exposes it to something ''tout autre'', "wholly other", beyond what is foreseeable from the present, beyond the horizon of the "same"."Caputo (1997), p. 42. Other than Rousseau, Husserl, Heidegger and Levinas, these three books discussed, and/or relied upon, the works of many philosophers and authors, including linguist Saussure,
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
,"From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelianism without Reserve" in ''Writing and Difference''.
Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic, political activist, and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships be ...
,"Cogito and the History of Madness" in ''Writing and Difference''. Bataille, Descartes, anthropologist Lévi-Strauss, paleontologist Leroi-Gourhan, psychoanalyst
Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...
, and writers such as Jabès and Artaud. This collection of three books published in 1967 elaborated Derrida's theoretical framework. Derrida attempts to approach the very heart of the Western intellectual tradition, characterizing this tradition as "a search for a transcendental being that serves as the origin or guarantor of meaning". The attempt to "ground the meaning relations constitutive of the world in an instance that itself lies outside all relationality" was referred to by Heidegger as logocentrism, and Derrida argues that the philosophical enterprise is ''essentially'' logocentric, and that this is a
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
inherited from Judaism and Hellenism. He in turn describes logocentrism as phallocratic,
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
and masculinist. Derrida contributed to "the understanding of certain deeply hidden philosophical presuppositions and prejudices in
Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
",Wayne A. Borody
(1998), pp. 3, 5

ttp://kenstange.com/nebula/ ''Nebula: A Netzine of the Arts and Science'' Vol. 13 (pp. 1–27).
arguing that the whole philosophical tradition rests on arbitrary dichotomous categories (such as sacred/profane, signifier/signified, mind/body), and that any text contains implicit hierarchies, "by which an order is imposed on reality and by which a subtle repression is exercised, as these hierarchies exclude, subordinate, and hide the various potential meanings." Derrida refers to his procedure for uncovering and unsettling these dichotomies as
deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...
of Western culture. In 1968, he published his influential essay "
Plato's Pharmacy A pharmakós (, plural ''pharmakoi'') in Ancient Greek religion was the ritualistic sacrifice or exile of a human scapegoat or victim. Ritual A slave, a cripple, or a criminal was chosen and expelled from the community at times of disaster (fami ...
" in the French journal '' Tel Quel''.Spurgin, Tim (1997
Reader's Guide to Derrida's "Plato's Pharmacy"
Graff (1993). This essay was later collected in ''Dissemination'', one of three books published by Derrida in 1972, along with the essay collection ''Margins of Philosophy'' and the collection of interviews entitled '' Positions''.


1973–1980

Starting in 1972, Derrida produced on average more than one book per year. Derrida continued to produce important works, such as '' Glas'' (1974) and '' The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond'' (1980). Derrida received increasing attention in the United States after 1972, where he was a regular visiting professor and lecturer at several major American universities. In the 1980s, during the American culture wars,
conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
started a dispute over Derrida's influence and legacy upon American intellectuals, and claimed that he influenced American literary critics and theorists more than academic philosophers.


''Of Spirit'' (1987)

On 14 March 1987, Derrida presented at the CIPH conference entitled "Heidegger: Open Questions", a lecture which was published in October 1987 as ''Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question''. It follows the shifting role of ''
Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. ''Geist'' can be roughly translated into three English meanings: ghost (as in the supernatural entity), spirit (as in the Holy Spirit), and mind or int ...
'' (spirit) through Heidegger's work, noting that, in 1927, "spirit" was one of the philosophical terms that Heidegger set his sights on dismantling. With his Nazi political engagement in 1933, however, Heidegger came out as a champion of the "German Spirit", and only withdrew from an exalting interpretation of the term in 1953. Derrida asks, "What of this meantime?" His book connects in a number of respects with his long engagement of Heidegger (such as "The Ends of Man" in ''Margins of Philosophy'', his Paris seminar on philosophical nationality and nationalism in the mid-1980s, and the essays published in English as ''Geschlecht'' and ''Geschlecht II''). He considers "four guiding threads" of Heideggerian philosophy that form "the knot of this ''Geflecht''
raid RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...
: "the question of the question", "the essence of technology", "the discourse of animality", and "epochality" or "the hidden teleology or the narrative order." ''Of Spirit'' contributes to the long debate on Heidegger's Nazism and appeared at the same time as the French publication of a book by a previously unknown Chilean writer,
Victor Farías Víctor Ernesto Farías Soto (born 4 May 1940) is a Chilean historian. Farías is best known for his controversial book ''Heidegger and Nazism (book), Heidegger and Nazism'' (1987). Education Farías was born in Santiago, Chile, Santiago in 194 ...
, who charged that Heidegger's philosophy amounted to a wholehearted endorsement of the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
''
Sturmabteilung The (; SA; or 'Storm Troopers') was the original paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. I ...
'' (SA) faction. Derrida responded to Farías in an interview, "Heidegger, the Philosopher's Hell" and a subsequent article, "Comment donner raison? How to Concede, with Reasons?" He called Farías a weak reader of Heidegger's thought, adding that much of the evidence Farías and his supporters touted as new had long been known within the philosophical community.


1990s: political and ethical themes

Some have argued that Derrida's work took a political and ethical "turn" in the 1990s. Texts cited as evidence of such a turn include '' Force of Law'' (1990), as well as '' Specters of Marx'' (1994) and ''Politics of Friendship'' (1994). Some refer to ''The Gift of Death'' as evidence that he began more directly applying deconstruction to the relationship between ethics and religion. In this work, Derrida interprets passages from the Bible, particularly on
Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
and the
Sacrifice of Isaac The Binding of Isaac (), or simply "The Binding" (), is a story from Book of Genesis#Patriarchal age (chapters 12–50), chapter 22 of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God in Abrahamic religions, God orders A ...
, and from
Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...
's '' Fear and Trembling''. However, scholars such as Leonard Lawlor, Robert Magliola, and Nicole Anderson have argued that the "turn" has been exaggerated. Some, including Derrida himself, have argued that much of the philosophical work done in his "political turn" can be dated to earlier essays. Derrida develops an ethicist view respecting to hospitality, exploring the idea that two types of hospitalities exist, conditional and unconditional. Though this contributed to the works of many scholars, Derrida was seriously criticized for this. Derrida's contemporary readings of
Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (born Emanuelis 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 rel ...
,
Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...
,
Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...
, Jan Patočka, on themes such as law, justice, responsibility, and friendship, had a significant impact on fields beyond philosophy. Derrida and Deconstruction influenced aesthetics, literary criticism, architecture,
film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...
,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, sociology,
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
, law,
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
, theology,
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, gay and lesbian studies and political theory.
Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...
,
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
,
Geoffrey Hartman Geoffrey H. Hartman (August 11, 1929 – March 14, 2016) was a German-born American literary theorist, sometimes identified with the Yale School of deconstruction, although he cannot be categorised by a single school or method. Hartman spent mos ...
,
Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...
,
Rosalind Krauss Rosalind Epstein Krauss (born November 30, 1941) is an American art critic, art theorist and a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Krauss is known for her scholarship in 20th-century painting, sculpture and photography. As a criti ...
,
Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and Literary criticism, literary critic. During her academic career, she was primarily associated with the Centre universitaire de Vincennes (today's University of Paris VIII) ...
,
Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; ; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, ; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She has taught at Colum ...
, Duncan Kennedy, Gary Peller, Drucilla Cornell, Alan Hunt, Hayden White, Mario Kopić, and Alun Munslow are some of the authors who have been influenced by deconstruction. Derrida delivered a eulogy at Levinas' funeral, later published as ''Adieu à Emmanuel Lévinas'', an appreciation and exploration of Levinas's moral philosophy. Derrida used Bracha L. Ettinger's interpretation of Lévinas' notion of femininity and transformed his own earlier reading of this subject respectively. Derrida continued to produce readings of literature, writing extensively on
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
,
Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; born Paul Antschel; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a German-speaking Romanian poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translation, literary translator. He adopted his pen name (an anagram of the Romanian spelling Ancel ...
, and others. In 1991 he published ''The Other Heading'', in which he discussed the concept of identity (as in
cultural identity Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity (social science), identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, Locality (settlement), locality, gender, o ...
, European identity, and
national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...
), in the name of which in Europe have been unleashed "the worst violences," "the crimes of xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, religious or nationalist fanaticism." At the 1997 Cerisy Conference, Derrida delivered a ten-hour address on the subject of "the autobiographical animal" entitled The Animal That Therefore I Am (More To Follow). Engaging with questions surrounding the ontology of nonhuman animals, the ethics of animal slaughter and the difference between humans and other animals, the address has been seen as initiating a late "animal turn" in Derrida's philosophy, although Derrida himself has said that his interest in animals is present in his earliest writings.


''The Work of Mourning'' (1981–2001)

Beginning with "The Deaths of Roland Barthes" in 1981, Derrida produced a series of texts on mourning and memory occasioned by the loss of his friends and colleagues, many of them new engagements with their work. ''Memoires for Paul de Man'', a book-length lecture series presented first at Yale and then at Irvine as Derrida's Wellek Lecture, followed in 1986, with a revision in 1989 that included "Like the Sound of the Sea Deep Within a Shell: Paul de Man's War". Ultimately, fourteen essays were collected into ''The Work of Mourning'' (2001), which was expanded in the 2003 French edition, ''Chaque fois unique, la fin du monde'' (literally, "Unique each time, the end of the world"), to include essays dedicated to Gérard Granel and Maurice Blanchot.


2002 film

In October 2002, at the theatrical opening of the film ''
Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
'', he said that, in many ways, he felt more and more close to
Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...
's work, and that this closeness appears in Derrida's texts. Derrida mentioned, in particular, "everything I say about the media, technology, the spectacle, and the 'criticism of the show', so to speak, and the markets – the becoming-a-spectacle of everything, and the exploitation of the spectacle."Derrida (2002) Q&A session at Film Forum. Among the places in which Derrida mentions the ''
Spectacle In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...
'', is a 1997 interview about the notion of the intellectual.


Politics

Derrida engaged with a variety of political issues, movements, and debates throughout his career. In 1968, he participated in the
May 68 May 68 () was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history. Initially sparked by student demonstrations agains ...
protests in France [and met frequently with
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
]?. However, he expressed concerns about the "cult of spontaneity" and anti-unionist euphoria that he observed.Derrida (1991), "A 'Madness' Must Watch Over Thinking", pp. 347–9. He also registered his objections to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
in a lecture he gave in the United States. Derrida signed a petition against age of consent laws in 1977, and in 1981 he founded the French Jan Hus association to support dissident Czech intellectuals.Powell (2006), p. 151. In 1981, Derrida was arrested by the Czechoslovakian government for leading a conference without authorization and charged with
drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...
, although he claimed the drugs were planted on him. He was released with the help of the Mitterrand government and
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
. Derrida was an advocate for
nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...
, protested against
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, and met with
Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
intellectuals during a visit to
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
in 1988. He also opposed
capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
and was involved in the campaign to free
Mumia Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook; April 24, 1954) is an American political activist and journalist who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia police officer C ...
. Although Derrida was not associated with any political party until 1995, he supported the Socialist candidacy of
Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and th ...
, despite misgivings about such organizations. In the
2002 French presidential election Presidential elections in France, Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Ra ...
, he refused to vote in the run-off election between
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
candidate
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...
and
center-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
, citing a lack of acceptable choices. Derrida opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was engaged in rethinking politics and the political itself within and beyond philosophy. He focused on understanding the political implications of notions such as responsibility, reason of state, decision, sovereignty, and democracy. By 2000, he was theorizing "democracy to come" and thinking about the limitations of existing democracies.


Influences on Derrida

Crucial readings in his adolescence were
Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher ('' philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects ...
's '' Reveries of a Solitary Walker'' and '' Confessions'',
André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...
's journal, '' La porte étroite'', '' Les nourritures terrestres'' and '' The Immoralist''; and the works of
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
.Derrida (1989) ''This Strange Institution Called Literature'', pp. 35, 38–9. The phrase ''Families, I hate you!'' in particular, which inspired Derrida as an adolescent, is a famous verse from Gide's ''Les nourritures terrestres'', book IV. In a 1991 interview Derrida commented on a similar verse, also from book IV of the same Gide work: "I hated the homes, the families, all the places where man thinks he'll find rest" (''Je haïssais les foyers, les familles, tous lieux où l'homme pense trouver un repos''). Other influences upon Derrida are
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
,
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
,
Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...
,
Alexandre Kojève Alexandre Kojève (born Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov; 28 April 1902 – 4 June 1968) was a Russian-born French philosopher and international civil service, civil servant whose philosophical seminars had some influence on 20th-century Frenc ...
,
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
,
Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...
,
Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...
,
Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
,
Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
,
Emmanuel Lévinas Emmanuel Levinas (born Emanuelis 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 rel ...
,
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
,
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
,
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
,
Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss ( ; ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a Belgian-born French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair o ...
,
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
,
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
, J. L. AustinDerrida (1988) ''Afterword'', pp. 130–31. and
Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...
. His book, ''Adieu à Emmanuel Lévinas'', reveals his mentorship by this philosopher and Talmudic scholar who practiced the phenomenological encounter with the Other in the form of the
Face The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...
, which commanded human response. The use of deconstruction to read Jewish texts – like the
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
– is relatively rare but has recently been attempted.


Peers and contemporaries

Derrida's philosophical friends, allies, students and the heirs of Derrida's thought include Paul de Man,
Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and p ...
,
Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...
,
Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (born Emanuelis 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 rel ...
,
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
,
Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
,
Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...
,
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ( ; ; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend Jean-Luc Nancy. Lacoue-Labarthe was ...
, Sarah Kofman,
Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and Literary criticism, literary critic. During her academic career, she was primarily associated with the Centre universitaire de Vincennes (today's University of Paris VIII) ...
,
Bernard Stiegler Bernard Stiegler (; 1 April 1952 – 5 August 2020) was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also founder of the political and c ...
, Alexander García Düttmann, Joseph Cohen, Geoffrey Bennington,
Jean-Luc Marion Jean-Luc Marion (; born 3 July 1946) is a French philosopher and Catholic theologian. A former student of Jacques Derrida, his work is informed by patristic and mystical theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.Horner 2005. Much of h ...
,
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative ...
, Raphael Zagury-Orly,
Jacques Ehrmann Jacques Ehrmann (31 March 1931 – 11 June 1972) was a French literary theorist and a faculty member of the Yale University French Department from 1961 until his death in 1972. Biography Jacques Ehrmann was born in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin, France) on ...
, Avital Ronell,
Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In ...
, Béatrice Galinon-Mélénec,
Ernesto Laclau Ernesto Laclau (; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, ...
, Samuel Weber, Catherine Malabou, and Claudette Sartiliot.


Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...
and
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ( ; ; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend Jean-Luc Nancy. Lacoue-Labarthe was ...
were among Derrida's first students in France and went on to become well-known and important philosophers in their own right. Despite their considerable differences of subject, and often also of a method, they continued their close interaction with each other and with Derrida, from the early 1970s. Derrida wrote on both of them, including a long book on Nancy: ''Le Toucher, Jean-Luc Nancy'' (''On Touching—Jean-Luc Nancy'', 2005).


Paul de Man

Derrida's most prominent friendship in intellectual life was with Paul de Man, which began with their meeting at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
and continued until de Man's death in 1983. De Man provided a somewhat different approach to deconstruction, and his readings of literary and philosophical texts were crucial in the training of a generation of readers. Shortly after de Man's death, Derrida wrote the book ''Memoires: pour Paul de Man'' and in 1988 wrote an article in the journal ''
Critical Inquiry ''Critical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Chicago). While the topics and historica ...
'' called "Like the Sound of the Sea Deep Within a Shell: Paul de Man's War". The memoir became cause for controversy, because shortly before Derrida published his piece, it had been discovered by the Belgian literary critic Ortwin de Graef that long before his academic career in the US, de Man had written almost two hundred essays in a pro-Nazi newspaper during the German occupation of Belgium, including several that were explicitly
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
. Critics of Derrida have argued that he minimizes the antisemitic character of de Man's writing. Some critics have found Derrida's treatment of this issue surprising, given that, for example, Derrida also spoke out against antisemitism and, in the 1960s, broke with the Heidegger disciple
Jean Beaufret Jean Beaufret (; 22 May 1907, Auzances7 August 1982, Paris) was a French philosopher and Germanist tremendously influential in the reception of Martin Heidegger's work in France. Life After graduating from the École Normale Supérieure and c ...
over Beaufret's instances of antisemitism, about which Derrida (and, after him,
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
) expressed shock.


Michel Foucault

Derrida's criticism of
Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic, political activist, and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships be ...
appears in the essay '' Cogito and the History of Madness'' (from ''Writing and Difference''). It was first given as a lecture on 4 March 1963, at a conference at Wahl's '' Collège philosophique'', which Foucault attended, and caused a rift between the two men that was never fully mended.Powell (2006), pp. 34–5. In an appendix added to the 1972 edition of his ''History of Madness'', Foucault disputed Derrida's interpretation of his work, and accused Derrida of practicing "a historically well-determined little pedagogy ..which teaches the student that there is nothing outside the text .. A pedagogy which inversely gives to the voice of the masters that infinite sovereignty that allows it indefinitely to re-say the text." According to historian Carlo Ginzburg, Foucault may have written ''
The Order of Things ''The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences'' (''Les Mots et les Choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines'') is a book by French philosopher Michel Foucault. It proposes that every historical period has underlying epistemi ...
'' (1966) and ''
The Archaeology of Knowledge ''The Archaeology of Knowledge'' (''L’archéologie du savoir,'' 1969) by Michel Foucault is a treatise about the methodology and historiography of the systems of thought (''epistemes'') and of knowledge (''discursive formations'') which follow ...
'' partly under the stimulus of Derrida's criticism.Carlo Ginzburg
976 Year 976 ( CMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * January 10 – Emperor John I Tzimiskes dies at Constantinople, after returning from a second campaign against ...
''Il formaggio e i vermi'', translated in 1980 a
''The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller''
trans. Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), xviii.
Carlo Ginzburg briefly labeled Derrida's criticism in ''Cogito and the History of Madness'', as "facile, nihilistic objections," without giving further argumentation.


Derrida's translators

Geoffrey Bennington, Avital Ronell and Samuel Weber belong to a group of Derrida translators. Many of Derrida's translators are esteemed thinkers in their own right. Derrida often worked in a collaborative arrangement, allowing his prolific output to be translated into English in a timely fashion. Having started as a student of de Man,
Gayatri Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Li ...
took on the translation of ''Of Grammatology'' early in her career and has since revised it into a second edition.
Barbara Johnson Barbara Ellen Johnson (October 4, 1947 – August 27, 2009) was an American literary critic and translator, born in Boston. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Soci ...
's translation of Derrida's ''Dissemination'' was published by The Athlone Press in 1981. Alan Bass was responsible for several early translations; Bennington and Peggy Kamuf have continued to produce translations of his work for nearly twenty years. In recent years, a number of translations have appeared by Michael Naas (also a Derrida scholar) and Pascale-Anne Brault. Bennington, Brault, Kamuf, Naas, Elizabeth Rottenberg, and David Wills are currently engaged in translating Derrida's previously unpublished seminars, which span from 1959 to 2003. Volumes I and II of ''The Beast and the Sovereign'' (presenting Derrida's seminars from 12 December 2001 to 27 March 2002 and from 11 December 2002 to 26 March 2003), as well as ''The Death Penalty, Volume I'' (covering 8 December 1999 to 22 March 2000), have appeared in English translation. Further volumes currently projected for the series include ''Heidegger: The Question of Being and History'' (1964–1965), ''Death Penalty, Volume II'' (2000–2001), ''Perjury and Pardon, Volume I'' (1997–1998), and ''Perjury and Pardon, Volume II'' (1998–1999). With Bennington, Derrida undertook the challenge published as ''Jacques Derrida'', an arrangement in which Bennington attempted to provide a systematic explication of Derrida's work (called the "Derridabase") using the top two-thirds of every page, while Derrida was given the finished copy of every Bennington chapter and the bottom third of every page in which to show how deconstruction exceeded Bennington's account (this was called the "Circumfession"). Derrida seems to have viewed Bennington in particular as a kind of rabbinical explicator, noting at the end of the "Applied Derrida" conference, held at the University of Luton in 1995 that: "everything has been said and, as usual, Geoff Bennington has said everything before I have even opened my mouth. I have the challenge of trying to be unpredictable after him, which is impossible... so I'll try to pretend to be unpredictable after Geoff. Once again."


Marshall McLuhan

Derrida was familiar with the work of
Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...
, and since his early 1967 writings (''Of Grammatology'', ''Speech and Phenomena''), he speaks of language as a "medium," of phonetic writing as "the medium of the great metaphysical, scientific, technical, and economic adventure of the West." He expressed his disagreement with McLuhan in regard to what he called McLuhan's ideology about the end of writing.Poster (2010), pp. 3–4, 12–13. In a 1982 interview, he said: And in his 1972 essay ''Signature Event Context'' he said:


Architectural thinkers

Derrida had a direct impact on the theories and practices of influential architects
Peter Eisenman Peter David Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect, writer, and professor. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his high modernist and deconstructive designs, as well as for his authorship of several archi ...
and
Bernard Tschumi Bernard Tschumi (born 25 January 1944 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known Swiss architect Jean Tschumi and a French mother, Tschumi is a dual French ...
towards the end of the twentieth century. Derrida impacted a project that was theorized by Eisenman in ''Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman''. This design was architecturally conceived by Tschumi for the
Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette () is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues ...
in Paris, which included a sieve, or harp-like structure that Derrida envisaged as a physical metaphor for the receptacle-like properties of the ''
khôra In semiotics, ''khôra'' (also ''chora''; ) is the space that gives a place for being. The term has been used in philosophy by Plato to designate a receptacle (as a "third kind" 'triton genos'' '' Timaeus'' 48e4), a space, a material substratum ...
''. Moreover, Derrida's commentaries on Plato's notion of ''khôra'' (χώρα) as set in the '' Timaeus'' (48e4) received later reflections in the philosophical works and architectural writings of the philosopher-architect
Nader El-Bizri Nader El-Bizri (, ''nādir al-bizrĩ'') served as the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Sharjah. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at The Warburg Institute at the School of Advanced Study ...
within the domain of
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
. Derrida used "χώρα" to name a radical otherness that "gives place" for being. El-Bizri built on this by more narrowly taking ''khôra'' to name the radical happening of an ontological difference between being and beings. El-Bizri's reflections on ''khôra'' are taken as a basis for tackling the meditations on ''dwelling'' and on ''being and space'' in
Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language. In April ...
's thought and the critical conceptions of space and place as they evolved in
architectural theory Architectural theory is the act of thinking, discussing, and writing about architecture. Architectural theory is taught in all architecture schools and is practiced by the world's leading architects. Some forms that architecture theory takes are t ...
(and its strands in phenomenological thinking), and in history of philosophy and science, with a focus on geometry and optics. This also describes El-Bizri's take on "econtology" as an extension of Heidegger's consideration of the question of being (''Seinsfrage'') by way of the fourfold (''Das Geviert'') of earth-sky-mortals-divinities (''Erde und Himmel, Sterblichen und Göttlichen''); and as also impacted by his own meditations on Derrida's take on "χώρα". Ecology is hence co-entangled with ontology, whereby the worldly existential analytics are grounded in earthiness, and environmentalism is orientated by ontological thinking Derrida argued that the subjectile is like Plato's ''khôra'', Greek for space, receptacle or site. Plato proposes that ''khôra'' rests between the sensible and the intelligible, through which everything passes but in which nothing is retained. For example, an image needs to be held by something, just as a mirror will hold a reflection. For Derrida, ''khôra'' defies attempts at naming or the either/or logic, which he "deconstructed".


Criticism


Criticism from Marxists

In a paper entitled ''Ghostwriting'',
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative ...
—the translator of Derrida's ''De la grammatologie'' (''Of Grammatology'') into English—criticised Derrida's understanding of Marx. Commenting on Derrida's ''Specters of Marx'', Terry Eagleton wrote "The portentousness is ingrained in the very letter of this book, as one theatrically inflected rhetorical question tumbles hard on the heels of another in a tiresomely mannered syntax which lays itself wide open to parody."


Criticism from Anglophone philosophers

Though Derrida addressed the
American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...
on at least one occasion in 1988, and was highly regarded by some contemporary philosophers like
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
, Alexander Nehamas, and
Stanley Cavell Stanley Louis Cavell (; September 1, 1926 – June 19, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. He worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, ...
, his work has been regarded by other analytic philosophers, such as
John Searle John Rogers Searle (; born July 31, 1932) is an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. He began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1959 and was Willis S. and Mario ...
and
Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine ( ; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...
,J. E. D'Ulisse
''Derrida (1930–2004)''
''New Partisan'', 24 December 2004.
as
pseudophilosophy Pseudophilosophy is a philosophical idea or system which does not meet an expected set of philosophical standards. There is no universally accepted set of standards, but there are similarities and some common ground. Definitions According to Chri ...
or sophistry. Some
analytic philosopher Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...
s have in fact claimed, since at least the 1980s, that Derrida's work is "not philosophy". One of the main arguments they gave was alleging that Derrida's influence had not been on US philosophy departments but on literature and other
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
disciplines. In his 1989 ''
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity ''Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity'' is a 1989 book by the American philosopher Richard Rorty, based on two sets of lectures he gave at University College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In contrast to his earlier work, '' Philos ...
'',
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
argues that Derrida (especially in his book, '' The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond'', one section of which is an experiment in fiction) purposefully uses words that cannot be defined (e.g., ''
différance is a French term coined by Jacques Derrida. Roughly speaking, the method of ''différance'' is a way to analyze how signs (words, symbols, metaphors, etc) come to have meanings. It suggests that meaning is not inherent in a sign but arises from ...
''), and uses previously definable words in contexts diverse enough to make understanding impossible, so that the reader will never be able to contextualize Derrida's literary self. Rorty, however, argues that this intentional obfuscation is philosophically grounded. In garbling his message Derrida is attempting to escape the naïve, positive metaphysical projects of his predecessors.Rorty, Richard. ''Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. . Ch. 6: "From ironist theory to private allusions: Derrida".
Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...
wrote in 2004, "He's difficult to summarise because it's nonsense. He argues that the meaning of a sign is never revealed in the sign but deferred indefinitely and that a sign only means something by virtue of its difference from something else. For Derrida, there is no such thing as meaning – it always eludes us and therefore anything goes." On Derrida's scholarship and writing style,
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
wrote "I found the scholarship appalling, based on pathetic misreading; and the argument, such as it was, failed to come close to the kinds of standards I've been familiar with since virtually childhood. Well, maybe I missed something: could be, but suspicions remain, as noted." Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt also criticized his work for misusing scientific terms and concepts in '' Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science'' (1994). Three quarrels (or disputes) in particular went out of academic circles and received international mass media coverage: the 1972–88 quarrel with John Searle, the analytic philosophers' pressures on Cambridge University not to award Derrida an honorary degree, and a dispute with Richard Wolin and the NYRB.


Searle–Derrida debate


Cambridge honorary doctorate

In 1992 some academics at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, mostly not from the philosophy faculty, proposed that Derrida be awarded an honorary doctorate. This was opposed by, among others, the university's Professor of Philosophy Hugh Mellor. Eighteen other philosophers from US, Austrian, Australian, French, Polish, Italian, German, Dutch, Swiss, Spanish, and British institutions, including Barry Smith,
Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine ( ; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...
, David Armstrong, Ruth Barcan Marcus, and
René Thom René Frédéric Thom (; 2 September 1923 – 25 October 2002) was a French mathematician, who received the Fields Medal in 1958. He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he became ...
, then sent a letter to Cambridge claiming that Derrida's work "does not meet accepted standards of clarity and rigour" and describing Derrida's philosophy as being composed of "tricks and gimmicks similar to those of the
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
ists". The letter concluded that: In the end the protesters were outnumbered—336 votes to 204—when Cambridge put the motion to a formal ballot; though almost all of those who proposed Derrida and who voted in favour were not from the philosophy faculty. Hugh Mellor continued to find the award undeserved, explaining: "He is a mediocre, unoriginal philosopher — he is not even interestingly bad". Derrida suggested in an interview that part of the reason for the attacks on his work was that it questioned and modified "the rules of the dominant discourse, it tries to politicize and democratize education and the university scene". To answer a question about the "exceptional violence", the compulsive "ferocity", and the "exaggeration" of the "attacks", he would say that these critics organize and practice in his case "a sort of obsessive personality cult that philosophers should know how to question and above all to moderate".


Dispute with Richard Wolin and the ''NYRB''

Richard Wolin Richard Wolin (; born 1952) is an American intellectual historian who writes on 20th century European philosophy, particularly German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the group of thinkers known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Life Wolin ...
has argued since 1991 that Derrida's work, as well as that of Derrida's major inspirations (e.g., Bataille, Blanchot, Levinas, Heidegger, Nietzsche), leads to a corrosive
nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...
. For example, Wolin argues that the "deconstructive gesture of overturning and reinscription ends up by threatening to efface many of the essential differences between Nazism and non-Nazism".Richard Wolin, Preface to the MIT press edition: Note on a missing text. In R. Wolin (ed.) ''The Heidegger Controversy: A Critical Reader''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1993, p. xiii. . In 1991, when Wolin published a Derrida interview on Heidegger in the first edition of ''The Heidegger Controversy'', Derrida argued that the interview was an intentionally malicious mistranslation, which was "demonstrably execrable" and "weak, simplistic, and compulsively aggressive". As French law requires the consent of an author to translations and this consent was not given, Derrida insisted that the interview not appear in any subsequent editions or reprints. Columbia University Press subsequently refused to offer reprints or new editions. Later editions of ''The Heidegger Controversy'' by MIT Press also omitted the Derrida interview. The matter achieved public exposure owing to a friendly review of Wolin's book by the Heideggerian scholar Thomas Sheehan that appeared in ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', in which Sheehan characterised Derrida's protests as an imposition of censorship. It was followed by an exchange of letters. and Derrida in turn responded to Sheehan and Wolin, in "The Work of Intellectuals and the Press (The Bad Example: How the New York Review of Books and Company do Business)", which was published in the book '' Points...''.Derrida, "The Work of Intellectuals and the Press (The Bad Example: How the New York Review of Books and Company do Business)", published in the book '' Points...'' (1995; see the footnote about ,
here Here may refer to: Music * ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994 * ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016 * ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979 * ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012 * ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004 * ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...
) (see also the
992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as far south as Germany and Korea. Euro ...
French version '' Points de suspension: entretiens'' () there).
Twenty-four academics, belonging to different schools and groups – often in disagreement with each other and with deconstruction – signed a letter addressed to ''The New York Review of Books'', in which they expressed their indignation for the magazine's behaviour as well as that of Sheenan and Wolin.''Points'', p. 434.


Critical obituaries

Critical obituaries of Derrida were published in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'', and ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. The magazine ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'' responded to the ''New York Times'' obituary saying that "even though American papers had scorned and trivialized Derrida before, the tone seemed particularly caustic". A second obituary by deconstruction scholar and Derrida's friend Mark C. Taylor was published by the ''Times'' a few days after the first one.


Major works


See also

* Gadamer–Derrida debate * Difference (poststructuralism)


Notes


Works cited

* Geoffrey Bennington (1991)
''Jacques Derrida''
University of Chicago Press. Section ''Curriculum vitae'', pp. 325–36

* Caputo, John D. (ed.) (1997). ''Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida''. New York: Fordham University Press. Transcript (which is also available ) of the Roundtable Discussion with Jacques Derrida at
Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...
, 3 October 1994. With commentary by Caputo. * Cixous, Hélène (2001). ''Portrait of Jacques Derrida as a Young Jewish Saint'' (English edition, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004). *Derrida (1967): interview with Henri Ronse, republished in '' Positions'' (English edition, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1981). *Derrida (1971): interview with Guy Scarpetta, republished in ''Positions'' (English edition, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1981). *Derrida (1976). ''Where a Teaching Body Begins and How It Ends'', republished in '' Who's Afraid of Philosophy?''. *Derrida (1988). ''Afterword: Toward An Ethic of Discussion'', published in the English translation of '' Limited Inc.'' *Derrida (1989). ''This Strange Institution Called Literature'', interview published in '' Acts of Literature'' (1991), pp. 33–75 *Derrida (1990). ''Once Again from the Top: Of the Right to Philosophy'', interview with Robert Maggiori for ''
Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'', 15 November 1990, republished in '' Points...: Interviews, 1974–1994'' (1995). *Derrida (1991). "A 'Madness' Must Watch Over Thinking", interview with Francois Ewald for ''Le Magazine Litteraire'', March 1991, republished in '' Points...: Interviews, 1974–1994'' (1995). *Derrida (1992). Derrida's interview in ''The Cambridge Review'' 113, October 1992. Reprinted in ''Points...: Interviews, 1974–1994'' Stanford University Press (1995) and retitled as ''Honoris Causa'': "This is ''also'' extremely funny," pp. 399–421
Excerpt
*Derrida (1993). '' Specters of Marx''. *Derrida ''et al.'' (1994): ''Surfaces'' Vol. VI.108 (v.1.0A – 16 August 1996) – . Jacques Derrida's contribution to the first International Conference for Humanistic Discourses, was held in April, 1994. Later republished in '' Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy'' (2002). *Derrida and Ferraris (1997). "I Have a Taste for Secret", 1993–1995 conversations with
Maurizio Ferraris Maurizio Ferraris (born 7 February 1956, Turin) is an Italian continental philosopher and scholar, whose name is associated especially with the philosophical current named "New realism (philosophy)#New realism (contemporary philosophy), new realis ...
and Giorgio Vattimo, in Derrida and Ferraris (2001
''A Taste for the Secret''
translated by Giacomo Donis. *Derrida (1997): interview ''Les Intellectuels: tentative de définition par eux-mêmes. Enquête'', published in a special number of journal ''Lignes'', 32 (1997): 57–68, republished i
''Papier Machine''
(2001), and translated into English as ''Intellectuals. Attempt at Definition by Themselves. Survey'', in Derrida (2005) ''Paper machine''. *Derrida (2002): Q&A session at
Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...
, New York City, 23 October 2002, transcript by Gil Kofman. Published in Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering Kofman, Jacques Derrida (2005)
''Derrida: screenplay and essays on the film''
* Graff, Gerald (1993)
''Is Reason in Trouble?''
in '' Proc. Am. Philos. Soc.'', 137, no. 4, 1993, pp. 680–88. * Kritzman, Lawrence (2005)
''The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought''
Columbia University Press. * Mackey, Louis (1984) with a reply by Searle
''An Exchange on Deconstruction''
in ''
New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
'', 2 February 1984. *Peeters, Benoît (2013)
''Derrida: A Biography''
Translated by Andrew Brown. Cambridge: Polity Press. * Powell, Jason (2006)
''Jacques Derrida: A Biography''
London and New York: Continuum. * Poster, Mark (1988)
''Critical theory and poststructuralism: in search of a context''
section ''Introduction: Theory and the problem of Context''. * Poster, Mark (2010)
''McLuhan and the Cultural Theory of Media''
''MediaTropes eJournal'', Vol. II, No. 2 (2010): 1–18. * Searle (1983)
''The Word Turned Upside Down''
in ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', October 1983. * Searle (2000)
''Reality Principles: An Interview with John R. Searle''
''Reason.com''. February 2000 issue. Retrieved 30 August 2010.


Further reading


Biographies

*Peeters, Benoît (2012) ''Derrida: A Biography''. Cambridge: Polity *Salmon, Peter (2020) ''An Event, Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida''. London: Verso.


Introductory works

* *Adleman, Dan (2010) "Deconstricting Derridean Genre Theory"
PDF
*Culler, Jonathan (1975) ''Structuralist Poetics''. *Culler, Jonathan (1983) ''On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism''. *Descombes, Vincent (1980) ''Modern French Philosophy''. *Deutscher, Penelope (2006) ''How to Read Derrida'' (). * Mark Dooley and Liam Kavanagh (2007) ''The Philosophy of Derrida'', London: Acumen Press, 2006; Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. *Goldschmit, Marc (2003) ''Jacques Derrida, une introduction'' Paris, Agora Pocket, . * Hill, Leslie (2007
''The Cambridge introduction to Jacques Derrida''
* Jameson, Fredric (1972) ''The Prison-House of Language''. *Leitch, Vincent B. (1983) ''Deconstructive Criticism: An Advanced Introduction''. *Lentricchia, Frank (1980) ''After the New Criticism''. *Moati Raoul (2009), Derrida/Searle, déconstruction et language ordinaire * Norris, Christopher (1987) ''Derrida'' (). *Norris, Christopher (1982) ''Deconstruction: Theory and Practice''. *Thomas, Michael (2006) '' The Reception of Derrida: Translation and Transformation''. * Wise, Christopher (2009) ''Derrida, Africa, and the Middle East''.


Other works

* Agamben, Giorgio. "Pardes: The Writing of Potentiality," in Giorgio Agamben, ''Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy'', ed. and trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. 205–19. * Anderson, Nicole, ''Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure'', Publishing Plc, London, 2013 (). *Beardsworth, Richard, ''Derrida and the Political'' (). * Bennington, Geoffrey, ''Legislations'' (). *Bennington, Geoffrey, ''Interrupting Derrida'' (). * Critchley, Simon, * Caputo, John D., ''The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida''. * Coward, Harold G. (ed) ''Derrida and
Negative theology Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God, the Divine, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness tha ...
'', SUNY 1992. *Dal Bo, Federico ''Deconstructing the Talmud'' Routledge 2019. * de Man, Paul, "The Rhetoric of Blindness: Jacques Derrida's Reading of Rousseau," in Paul de Man, ''Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism'', second edition, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983. 102–41. * El-Bizri, Nader, "Qui-êtes vous
Khôra In semiotics, ''khôra'' (also ''chora''; ) is the space that gives a place for being. The term has been used in philosophy by Plato to designate a receptacle (as a "third kind" 'triton genos'' '' Timaeus'' 48e4), a space, a material substratum ...
?: Receiving
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
's Timaeus", ''Existentia Meletai-Sophias'' 11 (2001), pp. 473–490. * El-Bizri, Nader, "''ON KAI KHORA'': Situating
Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language. In April ...
between the ''
Sophist A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...
'' and the '' Timaeus''," ''Studia Phaenomenologica'' 4 (2004), pp. 73–98. * Fabbri, Lorenzo
"Chronotopologies of the Exception. Agamben and Derrida before the Camps"
"Diacritics", Volume 39, Number 3 (2009): 77–95. * Foucault, Michel, "My Body, This Paper, This Fire," in Michel Foucault, ''History of Madness'', ed. Jean Khalfa, trans. Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa, London: Routledge, 2006. 550–74. * Fradet, Pierre-Alexandre, ''Derrida-Bergson. Sur l'immédiateté'', Hermann, Paris, coll. "Hermann Philosophie", 2014. * Gasché, Rodolphe, ''Inventions of Difference: On Jacques Derrida''. *Gasché, Rodolphe, ''The Tain of the Mirror''. *Goldschmit, Marc, ''Une langue à venir. Derrida, l'écriture hyperbolique'' Paris, Lignes et Manifeste, 2006. * Habermas, Jürgen, "Beyond a Temporalized Philosophy of Origins: Jacques Derrida's Critique of Phonocentrism," in Jürgen Habermas, ''The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures'', trans. Frederick G. Lawrence, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990. 161–84. * Hägglund, Martin, ''Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life'', Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. * Hamacher, Werner, ''Lingua amissa'', Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila editores, 2012. * * Kopić, Mario, ''Izazovi post-metafizike'', Sremski Karlovci – Novi Sad: Izdavačka knjižarnica, 2007. () * Kopić, Mario, ''Nezacjeljiva rana svijeta'', Zagreb: Antibarbarus, 2007. () * Mackey, Louis, "Slouching Toward Bethlehem: Deconstructive Strategies in Theology," in ''Anglican Theological Review, Volume LXV, Number 3'', July 1983. 255–272. * Llewelyn, John, ''Derrida on the Threshold of Sense'', London: Macmillan, 1986. *Llewelyn, John, ''Appositions – of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. *Llewelyn, John, ''Margins of Religion: Between Kierkegaard and Derrida'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. * Mackey, Louis, "A Nicer Knowledge of Belief" in Louis Mackey, ''An Ancient Quarrel Continued: The Troubled Marriage of Philosophy and Literature'', Lanham, University Press of America, 2002. 219–240 (). * Magliola, Robert, ''Derrida on the Mend'', Lafayette: Purdue UP, 1984; 1986; rpt. 2000 (). (Initiated what has become a very active area of study in Buddhology and comparative philosophy, the comparison of Derridean deconstruction and Buddhist philosophy, especially Madhyamikan and Zen Buddhist philosophy.) * Magliola, Robert, ''On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture'', Atlanta: Scholars P, American Academy of Religion, 1997; Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000 (). (Further develops comparison of Derridean thought and Buddhism.) * Marder, Michael
''The Event of the Thing: Derrida's Post-Deconstructive Realism''
Toronto: Toronto UP, 2009. () * Miller, J. Hillis, ''For Derrida'', New York: Fordham University Press, 2009. * Mouffe, Chantal (ed.), ''Deconstruction and Pragmatism'', with essays by
Simon Critchley Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City, U.S.A. Biography Critchley was born on 27 February 1960, in Letchworth, Engl ...
,
Ernesto Laclau Ernesto Laclau (; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, ...
,
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
, and Derrida. *Park, Jin Y., ed., ''Buddhisms and Deconstructions'', Lanham: Rowland and Littlefield, 2006 (; ). (Several of the collected papers specifically treat Derrida and Buddhist thought.) *Rapaport, Herman, ''Later Derrida'' (). * Rorty, Richard, "From Ironist Theory to Private Allusions: Derrida," in Richard Rorty, ''Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 121–37. * Ross, Stephen David, ''Betraying Derrida, for Life'', Atropos Press, 2013. * Roudinesco, Elisabeth, ''Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida'', Columbia University Press, New York, 2008. * Sallis, John (ed.), ''Deconstruction and Philosophy'', with essays by Rodolphe Gasché, John D. Caputo, Robert Bernasconi, David Wood, and Derrida. * *Salvioli, Marco, ''Il Tempo e le Parole. Ricoeur e Derrida a "margine" della fenomenologia'', ESD, Bologna 2006. * Smith, James K. A., ''Jacques Derrida: Live Theory''. *Sprinker, Michael, ed. ''Ghostly Demarcations: A Symposium on Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx'', London and New York: Verso, 1999; rpt. 2008. (Includes Derrida's reply, "Marx & Sons.") * Stiegler, Bernard, "Derrida and Technology: Fidelity at the Limits of Deconstruction and the Prosthesis of Faith," in Tom Cohen (ed.), ''Jacques Derrida and the Humanities'' (). * Wood, David (ed.), ''Derrida: A Critical Reader'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1992. *Zlomislic, Marko, ''Jacques Derrida's Aporetic Ethics'', Lexington Books, 2004.


External links


Jacques Derrida
at The European Graduate School * Leonard Lawlor
Entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* Gerry Coulter

Volume 2, Number 1, January 2005 * John Rawlings
''Jacques Derrida''
Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts * Jean-Michel Rabaté. Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory. * Eddie Yeghiayan. (up to 2001), Bibliography and translations list
Guide to the Jacques Derrida Papers.
Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Guide to the Saffa Fathy Video Recordings of Jacques Derrida Lectures.
Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Guide to the Jacques Derrida Listserv Collection.
Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. * Mario Perniola
''Remembering Derrida''
in "SubStance" (University of California), 2005, n.1, issue 106. * Rick Roderick
and the Ends of Man''
in "The Self Under Siege: Philosophy in the 20th Century (1993)" (University of Texas, Austin). {{DEFAULTSORT:Derrida, Jacques 1930 births 2004 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer in France French architecture writers French essayists French male non-fiction writers Postmodern writers Writers about activism and social change Writers from Algiers 20th-century French anthropologists 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French translators 21st-century French anthropologists 21st-century French essayists 21st-century French male writers 21st-century French philosophers 21st-century French translators Architectural theoreticians Deconstruction Epistemologists Jewish philosophers Judaism and environmentalism French metaphysicians Ontologists Phenomenologists Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture French philosophers of education Philosophers of history French philosophers of language Philosophers of law Philosophers of linguistics Philosophers of literature French philosophers of mind Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophers of technology Philosophy academics French political philosophers Social philosophers Anti–Iraq War activists Democracy activists Ecofeminists French environmentalists French feminists French literary critics French semioticians French translation scholars Hermeneutists Literacy and society theorists Literary theorists Post-structuralists Rhetoric theorists Semanticists Theorists on Western civilization Trope theorists African Sephardi Jews Algerian emigrants to France Algerian Jews French people of Algerian-Jewish descent People from El Biar Pieds-noirs École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the École Normale Supérieure Academic staff of European Graduate School Harvard University alumni University of California, Irvine faculty Academic staff of the University of Paris French secular Jews