Peter Salmon is an Australian writer living in the UK. His latest book is An Event Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida (2020) and his writing has appeared in the TLS, the New Humanist, the Sydney Review of Books and The Guardian among others.
The Metaphysics of Presence
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a French philosopher whose brilliant analyses of the text of philosophy and literature overturned many of the fundamental assumptions of each.
- In 1967, he introduced a new method to philosophy, deconstruction, which is the idea that if something is constructed, it can be de-constructed.
- This applies to objects in the world, such as chairs, cars, and houses, but it also applies to concepts we use in our everyday lives.
Why it matters
One of the barriers to engaging with deconstruction is Derrida’s own fearsome prose style
- The founding text of deconstruction, Of Grammatology (1967), is a wonderfully bonkers book ranging across all of language and language systems, all of history, and all literature
- Draws attention to the fact that the words and concepts we use, including those in our own heads that we mistake for our thinking – or even our soul – are inherited from the culture around us
- Some of the best ways to learn about deconstruction are to engage with works that have been influenced by or anticipate his work
Links & Books
The documentary Derrida (2002) is the most accessible introduction to deconstruction online
- There are many bite-sized clips from the film, including one of him being funny in his library about the number of books he’s read
- For a more serious look at deconstruction, watch the film Ghost Dance (1983)
- Some of his later work is his least rebarbative, and introduces his thinking in ways that he eschewed earlier on
Think it through
Get comfortable – you’re planning to overthrow every preconceived idea
- Fundamental to deconstruction is the idea that any text can be deconstructed
- Need something to deconstruct
- How the text is regarded, the prevailing wisdom
- Think about why these texts are regarded this way, why this is the doxa
- To think deconstructively is to not only call into question accepted truths, but to ask in whose interests it is that they be accepted
How to deconstruct the world
Anything that has been constructed can be deconstructed
- This is true for objects, but also for concepts, such as God, justice and truth
- Read against the grain
- Bring unexpected concepts to your analysis
- The author’s interpretation of a text is no more valid than your own
