Jacques Derrida: teachings, books, philosophy

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Who is Jacques Derrida? What is he famous for? This is a French philosopher who initiated the creation of the International Philosophical College in Paris. Derrida is a follower of the teachings of Nietzsche and Freud. His concept of deconstruction has much in common with the philosophy of logical analysis, although he categorically could not find contact with the philosophers of this trend. His mode of action is the destruction of stereotypes and the creation of a new context. This concept comes from the fact that the meaning is revealed in the process of reading.

Big name

For the last thirty years, Jacques Derrida and his philosophy have often been mentioned in books, lectures and magazines. For several years, he even became the object of films and cartoons. There is even one song with his mention. Jacques Derrida is known for authoring the most complex philosophical work of his time. He lived for 74 years and before his death in 2004 made two contradictoryeach other predict what will happen after his death. The French philosopher was sure that he would be quickly forgotten, but said that some of his work will remain in memory. In fact, these words define the rebellious essence of the philosopher; his work was defined by a constant unwillingness to remain within the boundaries of a familiar personality.

How to recognize a philosopher?

Somehow Peter Sloterdijk noticed that you can figure out a philosopher by his works, where sentences are built from chapters of arguments. The second method is based on the transition to the context and the search for the hidden meaning of the theses. Naturally, the text may become less important than the context. Jacques Derrida chose to work with the text, and did not expect any special results from the second one. He noticed that he does not require the reader to immerse himself in his texts and feel ecstasy from this, but wants to see a critical attitude towards translations and footnotes.

Corrosive character

The French philosopher turned out to be a real pedant. In his works, he touches on many different issues, criticizes Western European philosophy, and overcomes metaphysics through the analytics of concepts. There is a risk of replacing the true meaning with a false one, and the main one with a borderline one. The usual model of knowledge was rejected by the philosopher, that is, to understand the meaning of the text, you can not get acquainted with the text. Such a model suggests a presence effect, and Derrida argued that understanding requires study in comparison with other objects and the ability to recognize in different situations. The thoughts of the philosopher were a challenge for many fellow workers.

In books

Did Jacques Derrida write books? Certainly! In one of his best-known works in 1967, he argued that the emphasis on the present obscures the attitude towards death. In other words, the recognition that man exists means that man is mortal. The philosopher did not seek to show his superiority, but devotedly loved what he subjected to deconstruction. It was in this model that the greatness of Plato, Hegel or Rousseau manifested itself for him. Jacques' work was most warmly perceived in literary circles, where it was studied along with the work of other post-structuralists. Derrida was the first to use words and terms that connect mutually exclusive meanings. An example would be pharmakon, meaning medicine and poison, or espacement, which means space and time at the same time. For an unprepared reader, such terms produce a strange ambiguous impression.

Quotes and catchphrases

To find himself, Derrida wrote an autobiography, which he could not finish, because in many situations he did not identify himself. Derrida believed that the lion's share of biographies is written precisely from the desire to meet one's "I". For his statements, the philosopher was accused of vagueness and inability to formulate his thoughts, as well as a claim to originality. In addition to his concept, Jacques Derrida left quotes. Here they sometimes hit not in the eyebrow, but in the eye.

• "Such is the fate of the tongue - to move away from the body" - can you argue with such a phrase?
• "At times sophisticationappears as the ability to make the right choice in accordance with intuition" - such an argument is willingly used by extroverts tired of the usual forms.
• And how do you like his famous idea that "Yes" needs to be repeated?! This is indeed a brilliant observation. The remark that the reader must be either completely inexperienced or over-sophisticated can be considered exactly the same.

Biography of the philosopher

Jacques Derrida was born in Algeria. His philosophy took a lot from his homeland. Jacques' father is Jewish by birth, who took the children to the synagogue. Derrida became obsessed with the idea of emigration and compared himself to Spanish Jews. The emphasis on the Jewish roots took place in all his works throughout his life.

Most of his life the philosopher spent in Paris, where he gave his lectures. After his work, there was a whole room of various publications and translations, as well as a closet full of records.

Death didn't really matter to Jacques, although he often thought about it. In fact, he put her on the same level with ghosts, reminding that the approach to death is closely related to fear, anger and sadness. Therefore, there is no need to invent something new if all emotions are experienced. The tragedy of existence in the sense of life. Longevity is not a blessing, as it means many different meanings, which are determined at the time of death. Until the last moment, a person can imagine his life as a worthy and wonderful existence, but the result will be eloquent and, most likely, will show that life was bad, contained errors and annoyingmisunderstandings. The last seconds will tell you what distorts the meaning of life and why happy memories are erroneous.

In his books, Derrida said that writing prevails over the word. In art, in his opinion, there are various levels of meanings that the author is not aware of and does not always assume.