Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derridawas a French philosopher, born in Algeria. Derrida is best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he discussed in numerous texts, and developed in the context of phenomenology. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth15 July 1930
believe writing thinking
I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.
thinking analysis fields
I would say that deconstruction is affirmation rather than questioning, in a sense which is not positive: I would distinguish between the positive, or positions, and affirmations. I think that deconstruction is affirmative rather than questioning: this affirmation goes through some radical questioning, but it is not questioning in the field of analysis.
thinking traps acceptable
I do everything I think possible or acceptable to escape from this trap.
teaching philosophical thinking
If you read philosophical texts of the tradition, you'll notice they almost never said 'I,' and didn't speak in the first person. From Aristotle to Heidegger, they try to consider their own lives as something marginal or accidental. What was essential was their teaching and their thinking. Biography is something empirical and outside, and is considered an accident that isn't necessarily or essentially linked to the philosophical activity or system.
entered french-philosopher generality soon
As soon as there is language, generality has entered the scen.
caring names awakening
Such a caring for death, an awakening that keeps vigil over death, a conscience that looks death in the face, is another name for freedom.
atheist
I rightly pass for an atheist.
football
Beyond the touchline there is nothing.
believe book fighting
I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.
solitude speak given
We are given over to absolute solitude. No one can speak with us and no one can speak for us; we must take it upon ourselves, each of us must take it upon himself.
There is nothing outside of the text. [Fr., Il n'y a pas de hors-texte.]
law games forever
A text is not a text unless it hides from the first comer, from the first glance, the law of its composition and the rules of its game. A text remains, moreover, forever imperceptible. Its laws and rules are not, however, harbored in the inaccessibility of a secret; it is simply that they can never be booked, in the present, into anything that could rigorously be called a perception.
determination lexicon etc
A determination or an effect within a system which is no longer that of a presence but of a diffrance, a system that no longer tolerates the opposition of activity and passivity, nor that of cause and effect, or of indetermination and determination, etc., such that in designating consciousness as an effect or a determination, one continues - for strategic reasons that can be more or less lucidly deliberated and systematically calculated - to operate according to the lexicon of that which one is de-limiting.
love-life language i-love-life
I love language as I love life itself!