25. which inhabit Western metaphysical thought (e.g. Great article, very good writing and didactic as well. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. 24. In its simplest form it can be regarded as a criticism of Platonismand the idea of true forms, or essences, which take precedence over appearances. Derrida says, deconstruction is a word whose fortunes have disagreeably surprised me. I found this article peril .Thanks. Jacques Lacan, Séminaire V, p. 461. Derrida begins this essay by noting the slightly altered spelling of the word "difference." This is described as the ‘metaphysics of presence’—the way in which we make present the objects of our thought.3Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology (Spivak trans.) Giving valuable information…. Images and other media may be under different licences. The concept was first outlined by Derrida in Of Grammatology where he explored the interplay between language and the construction of meaning. Unless otherwise indicated, written content on this site is published under, ← Livability: Notes on the Thought of Judith Butler, Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The dominant concept is the one that manages to legitimate itself as the reflection of the natural order thereby squeezing out competing interpretations that remain trapped as the excluded trace within the dominant meaning. Derrida s'est intéressé à une opposition en particulier, celle entre l'écriture et la voix. Deconstructive analysis attempts to show that these binary dichotomies or dialectical oppositions implicitly privilege one term over the other (for example, in Hegelian “Phenomenology,” spirit is privileged over matter, mind over body, culture over nature etc. It is primarily concerned with understanding ideas, not with their application. Rather than seeking an endpoint or a solid conclusion, the means cannot be distinguished from the end. etc.). Derrida, in deconstruction, therefore does not reduce text messages to absurdities - he seeks to expose the irreducible undecidable inside tensions and aporias that can negate all certainty enforced in the pursuit of epistemic certitude that affirms an apprehending subject matter. Required fields are marked *. Deconstruction by its very nature defies institutionalization in an authoritative definition. This means you are free to share/repost/republish/remix for non-commercial purposes on condition that you acknowledge CLT and link to the source page. So rather than law being a direct embodiment of justice, how we understand both justice and law is determined by the interplay between the two. His use requires the spelling of différance. Derrida would say that the … I been given *Theory Of Deconstruction* as PhD topic . Rather than nature (justice) and institution (law) existing independently of each other, Derrida suggests that nature itself is constructed only with reference to the institution. I like to think of Derrida’s deconstructive efforts as a questioning of underlying assumptions that reveals how something is constructed in order to reimagine it outside the limits of that construction. Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit”). By reading law as reflecting or embodying the natural origin of justice, what is ignored or concealed are all the other possible interpretations of justice that are not embodied or encapsulated in the law. original form or any form they have been transmitted in. For this reason, Derrida explains, deconstruction is not a ‘method’, and it cannot be transformed into one.10Jacques Derrida, ‘Letter to a Japanese Friend’ in Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth G Rottenberg (eds) Psyche: Interventions of the Other Volume III (Stanford University Press, 2008) One cannot ‘apply’ deconstruction to test a hypothesis or to support an argument. To counter the pervasiveness of the ‘metaphysics of presence’ in Western Philosophy – Derrida uses the neologism ‘Differance’ – a playful combination of ‘differ’ and ‘to defer’, to demonstrate that the meaning of a linguistic sign is the simultaneous operation of distinction and temporality. In Acts of Literature, Derek Attridge insists that “deconstruction is inventive or it is nothing at all.”. In the end, I enjoy this way of thinking because I, for one, prefer creativity to the tyranny of top-buttered toast. If deconstruction is limited to the simple inversion of binaries, then inquiry remains trapped ‘within the closed field of these oppositions’.8Positions 41 What this means is that instead of making any real change to structural conditions, what is happening is simply swapping the positions of dominant and subordinate, allowing the same conditions to persist. L'approche critique de la déconstruction de Derrida nous montre que ces dualismes ne sont jamais équivalents, mais hiérarchisés. This has led to the charge that deconstruction is insufficiently concerned with questions of justice and ethics. Derrida has said that any statement such as “deconstruction is X” or … Learn how your comment data is processed. Put simply, what this means is that philosophy is driven by a desire for the certainty associated with the existence of an absolute truth, or an objective meaning that makes sense of our place in the world. Deconstruction does not aim to provide answers. In Acts of Literature, Derek Attridge insists that “deconstruction is inventive or it is nothing at all.” I like to think of Derrida’s deconstructive efforts as a questioning of underlying assumptions that reveals how something is constructed in order to reimagine it outside the limits of that construction. It takes place everywhere. As I see it, Derrida’s project was to keep the world of ideas safe from any pronouncements that would shut down the possibility for questions and questioning. Such analysis without logic is not analysis at all. Derrida terms this desire ‘logocentrism’. While the concept initially arose in the context of language, it is equally applicable to the study of law. Derrida and Deconstruction “With the word with, then, begins this text. It is vry helpful…. Crucial therefore is the idea of a rigid separation of the origin of meaning (the abstract idea of justice, for example) and the institutionalization of that meaning in ‘writing’ (or law). Three key features emerge from Derrida’s work as making deconstruction possible. Rather than resting with the inversion of the binaries, and by extension accepting a different manifestation of fixed meaning, the second phase requires us to step outside the oppositions, to remain in search of new meanings, not by repeating ideas but by analyzing how ideas are framed, how arguments are made. Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, London: The Hogart Press, p. 179. Because Derrida’s writing concerns auto-bio-graphy(writing about one’s life as a form of relation to oneself),many of his writings are auto-biographical. From this early work, and later works in which he has attempted to explain deconstruction to others, most notably the Letter to a Japanese Friend, it is possible to provide a basic explanation of what deconstruction is commonly understood to mean. 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