RIP Jacques Derrida

As thisdarkqualm notes, Jacques Derrida died yesterday (see also coverage from the BBC). As those stories indicate, Derrida had a huge influence on critical theory, philosophy, sociology, and politics in the last half of the 20th century, and his thinking had a huge influence on me, as well, especially in my first year of grad school. Yes, he may have gone too far at times, but he certainly helped explain the world we live in, and for that he will be sorely missed. If you haven't heard of him or aren't familiar with his work, I'm not sure where to steer you at the moment, but I found this little excerpt from a paper I wrote in my first year of grad school that attempted to explain one of his signature ideas, that of différance.

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Différance refers to the double distance between the words we use and any “real” origin; words both defer their “real” meaning and differ from one another. An immediate example of this is the sentence: “You are reading what I am writing now.” Focusing on the word “now” in that sentence: First it's clear that this word has at least two equally “true” meanings — I am writing this now, December 17, 1999, yet you are reading this now, which is any time after it has been written. Thus, to say “now” is to fix a unique meaning on the word at some point which is always already changing. Any time we use a word we defer its “true” meaning in the sense of “the action of putting off until later, of taking account of time and of the forces of an operation that implies an economical calculation, a detour, a delay, a relay, a reserve, a representation” (Derrida 8). In other words, we can say that the question of the “true” meaning of the word “now” is irrelevant because we are always already, each time we use the word, deferring questions of “truth” to some later time that will never come (because each time we use the word we defer its “true” meaning again in favor of whatever meaning we intend to fix on it in the moment of its use, a process that continues infinitely). Second, the definition of the word “now” is a function of its difference from all other words; “now” is “now” because it is not “then” or “tree” or “onomatopoeia.” This is true for all words, therefore, for language as a whole. Thus, language can be seen as a system of representation, an assemblage of gestures toward “reality” (words) which we use to describe, or re-present, our world to ourselves and others. The above is based on: Derrida, Jacques. Margins of Philosophy. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1982.

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UPDATE 10/12/04: This slightly longer obit explains a bit more why Derrida was both so famous and so controversial. L. and I were talking about this and I unthinkingly said Derrida was “foundational” to the thinking of any philosopher, linguist, critical theorist, etc. today. That's funny b/c Derrida's main point is that there are no foundations to anything—it's kind of turtles all the way down. For a little fun primer on Derrida, you probably can't beat the Beginners illustrated version. This is a great series, btw; highly recommended for any “big thinker” when you'd like to try to understand the basics of their writing and thought w/out actually spending the rest of your life trying to read it. Other resources on Derrida include: a Derrida documentary made last a year, a PopCultures.com intro, and a Wikipedia entry.

Posted October 10, 2004 10:16 AM | life generally