Derrida for Beginners

by Jeff Collins (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.28

  Jacques Derrida has undermined the accepted rules of philosophy, rejected its methods and concepts, broken its procedural limits and contaminated philosophy with literary and other kinds of writing. Derrida's philosophy is an initially puzzling array of oblique, deviant and yet rigorous tactics for destabilizing texts, meanings and identities. Deconstruction , as these strategies have been called, has been reviled as a politically pernicioius nihilism and celebrated as a liberatory politics of indifference. This work introduces the key strategies of Derrida's writings, explains the major controversies they have caused, and shows how Derrida himself has put these strategies to use in literature, art, architecture, and politics.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.28

  Jacques Derrida is one of the most influential figures in contemporary philosophy. Yet, Derrida has undermined the accepted rules of philosophy, rejected its methods and concepts, disrupted its boundaries and contaminated philosophy with other kinds of writings. Derrida's approach is an initially puzzling array of oblique, sliding and yet rigorous tactics for destabilising texts, meanings and identities. Deconstructions as these strategies have been called, has been reviled as a politically pernicious nihilism and celebrated as a liberatory politics of choice and difference. This work describes the key strategies of Derrida's writing, explains their controversial effects in philosophy, and shows how Derrida has put them to work in literature, art, architecture and politics. The book offers a starting point for an intellectual adventure that threatens to disturb some of the most comfortable habits of contemporary thought.