Jacques Derrida
Part of any philosophy course in college is to study the great philosophers. One of the more contemporary philosophers to influence all of western ideology was Jacques Derrida. When writing a research paper on Derrida, be sure to include his influence on the flaws of Western thought and his work to debunk the metaphysics of presence. Paper Masters can help you with this by writing you a custom research paper on Derrida or you can use the following to formulate your own work on Derrida.
The French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) is considered to be the founder of deconstruction. As a professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne, in Paris, and later at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Derrida's work attempted to expose the flaws in Western thought that were largely accepted and unchallenged.
Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction
Derrida specifically referred to his work as "deconstruction" and saw it as a critique of Idealism, which held that reality is a mental construction. Largely beginning with his 1967 work Of Grammatology, Derrida held that Western cultural ideas, stemming as far back as Aristotle, relied heavily on what he called the metaphysics of presence, or an immediate understanding of meaning. Derrida believed that numerous notions required no intrinsic meaning. Working off of the writings of Martin Heidegger and others, Derrida attempted to deconstruct, or question, the metaphysical aspect of Western philosophy.
Other philosophers to influence Derrida include:
Jacques Derrida - Grammatology
In Of Grammatology, Derrida produced his most famous quote, "There is nothing outside the text," indicating that context is equally as important to meaning. Critics have charged that in presenting this notion, Derrida allowed for no experience of reality beyond language. However, Derrida maintained that deconstruction was not a method of thought, because analysis largely relies on breaking a text into its various component parts, and Derrida maintained that such was not possible.