Derrida and Deconstruction

by Hugh J. Silverman (Introduction)

The effects of Derrida's writings have been widespread in literary circles, where they have transformed current work in literary theory. By contrast Derrida's philosophical writings--which deal with the whole range of western thought from Plato to Foucault--have not received adequate attention by philosophers. Organized around Derrida's readings of major figures in the history of philosophy, Derrida and Deconstruction focuses on and assesses his specifically philosophical contribution. Contemporary continental philosophers assess Derrida's account of philosophical tradition, with each contributor providing a critical study of Derrida's position on a philosopher she or he has already studied in depth These figures include Plato, Meister Eckhart, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Foucault.

Genres: Philosophy

268 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 1989

Reviews

[Daniel Clemence · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a collection of essays which vary in quality. The essays are set out with the philosophers of different eras compared with Derrida. I think this is problematic because the book isn't about Derrida or Deconstruction but a comparison of Derrida against different continental philosophers throughout history. This therefore makes the book disingenuous.

Does the book give good analysis of the comparison between Derrida and other continental philosophers? There are some good points raised. Freud's analysis of fetishes is quite an interesting comparison with Deconstructionism. Levinas view of the totality and violence, with violence being a totality separate from the relativism of the post-modern era. Overall, I don't think this structure works. It feels like "This is what X believed" and "Derrida disagreed". This is useful for philosophy and maybe some other humanity graduates write a comparative essay. For everyone else, not so much.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Derrida and Deconstruction" is a highly technical series of essays linking Jacques Derrida's 20th century philosophy with a series of thinkers that includes Plato, Descartes, Kant, Freud, Sartes and Foucault -- but since the authors are usually first and foremost experts in the philosophers Derrida is compared to, there's generally more about them than Derrida.

In addition, the authors assume a great deal of familiarity with terminology and jargon from both Derrida and the other thinkers, so without constant reference to Internet sources, the book is a tough read. In fact, it's pretty much a slog anyway, though I have to say by the end, I felt I had a much better grasp of Derrida's thought than I did at the start. The frustrating thing, however, was that I could have gotten that grasp in about 50 pages rather than 250 pages, too many of which were not about Derrida at all.