Jacques Derrida is dead

by Narkissos 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  Narkissos

  French philosopher Jacques Derrida died yesterday in Paris, at the age of 74.

  He was a very original and profound thinker, widely known for his "deconstruction" theory which brought about some pretty fresh outlooks on philosophy, language and literature. I unfortunately discovered his works much too late, but he was very helpful to me in my post-religious ramblings in the past few years. In particular, his analysis of the complex relation between word and writing (e.g. Plato's Pharmacy) was quite illuminating to me after many years of "logocentric" theological addiction...

  I often read that he was better known and appreciated in America than he was in France: have some here heard about him or enjoyed his works? (It's not too late for that anyway!)
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  onacruse

  Narkissos, I'm by no means as well read as I wish I could be, and so I must admit that I've never even heard of Deridda.

  However, your posts to this db have always impressed me for your intelligence and willingness to explore; so since Deridda was an impact in your thinking, I'd be very interested in knowing some specifics.

  Yes, I know I could do a search and read for like the next 200 days LOL...but, if you are so inclined, I'd prefer that you shared some of your typically succinct observations.

  Respectfully,

  Craig
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  under74

  yeah, I know some of his writings but I went to an art school for undergrad where deconstruction was really pushed.
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  Leolaia

  I read Signature Event Context several years back, and it was a fun self-referential piece. His ideas on citationality and iterability are evoked somewhat in current semantic theory (e.g. McConnell-Ginet) which recognizes that meanings of words change through iteration which is actually iteration-with-difference, with no fixed meaning assigned to phonetic forms apart from context. I think perhaps Austin and Derrida were both right, but at different levels of discourse -- Derrida describing the nitty-gritty of what actually happens with language from the view of production and interpretation, and Austin describing at a more simplified, ideological level of what people in their minds think is going on with language and what they do with it.

  It is always sad to lose a great thinker....thanks for breaking the news....
• 

  Valis

  http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/derrida/

  onanism..this is a good site.

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
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  NewSense

  Derrida est mort!! Mon dieu! Il est mort de quoi, le savez-vous? Il est mort d'une crise cardiaque? Moi, j'ai lu quelques uns de ses bouquins.C'est vachement difficile de le lire, et pourtant, ca vaut bien la peine!

  It was Derrida who said: "Il n'y a pas de hors-texte." There is nothing outside of the text. So, assuming that he is in heaven, I'm wondering if he has found heaven to be inside or outside of the text. And, I would really like to know the circumstances of his passing away. I certainly hope that they find no traces of Plato's pharmakon in him. The thought of the great deconstructionist thinker, jacques Derrida, being poisoned would be absolutely too much too endure.

  My idea of heaven is most definitely an enormous library (provided it is not Borges' Library of Babel!); I really, really hope that Derrida is there now in that heavenly library. I hope that he is now ensconced in a comfortable chair, discussing things with Michel Foucault, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Que Dieu te benisse, Jacques Derrida, que le bon Dieu te benisse!!!
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  Narkissos

  NewSense: He died from pancreas cancer. And certainly also from Plato's pharmakon, since he wouldn't had thought anybody could escape it...

  Funny you mention Borges: I was just thinking of him in relation to Derrida, especially a short story I read a long time ago, on the Don Quixote, by J.P. Ménard (or something like that). The absolute textual difference being the very same book written by someone else. Amazingly consonant (or contrapunctic) with some of Derrida's thinking.

  Btw, congrats for your French!