Ideas from 'works' by Jacques Derrida [1990], by Theme Structure

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1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science
                        Full Idea: We should focus on other philosophers, and not on science.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
Philosophy is just a linguistic display
                        Full Idea: Philosophy is entirely linguistic, and is a display.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / e. Philosophy as reason
Philosophy aims to build foundations for thought
                        Full Idea: Derrida points out that the project of philosophy consists largely in attempting to build foundations for thought.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Todd May - Gilles Deleuze 1.04
                        A reaction: You would first need to be convinced that there could be such a thing as foundations for thinking. Derrida thinks the project is hopeless. I think of it more as building an ideal framework for thought.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and its writing is aesthetic
                        Full Idea: All of philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and hence aesthetic.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 3. Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter
                        Full Idea: Derrida worried that hermeneutics blunts the disruptive power of truth by forcing it conform to the interpreter's mental horizon.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction 3 'The heart'
                        A reaction: Good heavens - I agree with Derrida. Very French, though, to see the value of truth in its disruptiveness. I tend to find the truth reassuring, but then I'm English.
Interpretations can be interpreted, so there is no original 'meaning' available
                        Full Idea: Because interpretations of texts can be interpreted, they can therefore have no 'original meaning'.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Hermeneutics is hostile, trying to overcome the other person's difference
                        Full Idea: Derrida described the hermeneutic impulse to understand another as a form of violence that seeks to overcome the other's particularity and unique difference.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction App 'Derrida'
                        A reaction: I'm not sure about 'violence', but Derrida was on to somethng here. The 'hermeneutic circle' sounds like a creepy process of absorption, where the original writer disappears in a whirlpool of interpretation.
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 4. Linguistic Structuralism
Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning
                        Full Idea: Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 6. Deconstruction
We aim to explore the limits of expression (as in Mallarmé's poetry)
                        Full Idea: The aim is to explore the limits of expression (which is what makes the poetry of Mallarmé so important).
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Sincerity can't be verified, so fiction infuses speech, and hence reality also
                        Full Idea: Sincerity can never be verified, so fiction infuses all speech, which means that reality is also fictional.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Sentences are contradictory, as they have opposite meanings in some contexts
                        Full Idea: Sentences are implicitly contradictory, because they can be used differently in different contexts (most obviously in 'I am ill').
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
The idea of being as persistent presence, and meaning as conscious intelligibility, are self-destructive
                        Full Idea: The tradition of conceiving being in terms of persisting presence, and meaning in terms of pure intelligibility or logos potentially present to the mind, finds itself dismantled by resources internal to its own construction.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 6
                        A reaction: [compressed] Glendinning says this is the basic meaning of de-construction. My personal reading of this is that Aristotle is right, and grand talk of Being is hopeless, so we should just aim to understand objects. I also believe in propositions.
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 9. Rejecting Truth
Derrida says that all truth-talk is merely metaphor
                        Full Idea: Derrida's view is that every discourse is metaphorical, and there is no difference between truth-talk and metaphor.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Pascal Engel - Truth §2.5
                        A reaction: Right. Note that this is a Frenchman's summary. How would one define metaphor, without mentioning that it is parasitic on truth? Certainly some language tries to be metaphor, and other language tries not to be.
True thoughts are inaccessible, in the subconscious, prior to speech or writing
                        Full Idea: 'True' thoughts are inaccessible, buried in the subconscious, long before they get to speech or writing.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
                        A reaction: [My reading of some Derrida produced no quotations. I've read two commentaries, which were obscure. The Derrida ideas in this db are my simplistic tertiary summaries. Experts can chuckle over my failure]
5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / b. Names as descriptive
Names have a subjective aspect, especially the role of our own name
                        Full Idea: We can give a subjective account of names, by considering our own name.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
'I' is the perfect name, because it denotes without description
                        Full Idea: 'I' is the perfect name, because it denotes without description.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / c. Names as referential
Even Kripke can't explain names; the word is the thing, and the thing is the word
                        Full Idea: Even Kripke can't explain names, because the word is the thing, and also the thing is the word.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / b. Essence of consciousness
Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness
                        Full Idea: Heidegger showed us the importance of transient time for consciousness.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 1. Thought
'Tacit theory' controls our thinking (which is why Freud is important)
                        Full Idea: All thought is controlled by tacit theory (which is why Freud is so important).
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
                        A reaction: This idea is said to be the essential thought of Derrida's Deconstruction. The aim is liberation of thought, by identifying and bypassing these tacit metaphysical schemas.
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 1. Meaning
Meanings depend on differences and contrasts
                        Full Idea: Meaning depends on 'differences' (contrasts).
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language
                        Full Idea: The capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language
                        Full Idea: A noun [for Aristotle] is proper when it has but a single sense. Better, it is only in this case that it is properly a noun. Univocity is the essence, or better, the telos of language.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 5
                        A reaction: [no ref given] His target seem to be Aristotelian definition, and also formal logic, which usually needs unambiguous meanings. {I'm puzzled that he thinks 'telos' is simply better than 'essence', since it is quite different].
Writing functions even if the sender or the receiver are absent
                        Full Idea: Writing can and must be able to do without the presence of the sender. ...Also writing can and must he able to do without the presence of the receiver.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 6
                        A reaction: In simple terms, one of them could die during the transmission. This is the grounds for the assertion of the primacy of writing. It opposes orthodox views which define language in terms of sender and receiver.
The sign is only conceivable as a movement between elusive presences
                        Full Idea: The sign is conceivable only on the basis of the presence that it defers, and moving toward the deferred presence that it aims to reappropriate.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 6
                        A reaction: [Glendinning gives no source for this] I take the fundamental idea to be that meanings are dynamic, when they are traditionally understood as static (and specifiable in dictionaries).
Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks in all language
                        Full Idea: Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks behind all language.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 9. Ambiguity
'Dissemination' is opposed to polysemia, since that is irreducible, because of multiple understandings
                        Full Idea: The intention to oppose polysemia with dissemination does not aim to affirm that everything we say is ambiguous, but that polysemia is irreducible in the sense that each and every 'meaning' is itself subject to more than one understanding.
                        From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 5
                        A reaction: The key point, I think, is that ambiguity and polysemia are not failures of language (which is the way most logicians see it), but part of the essential and irreducible nature of language. Nietzsche started this line of thought.
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 10. Denial of Meanings
Words exist in 'spacing', so meanings are never synchronic except in writing
                        Full Idea: Words only exist is 'spacings' (of time and space), so there are no synchronic meanings (except perhaps in writing).
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / a. Form of the Good
The good is implicitly violent (against evil), so there is no pure good
                        Full Idea: Even the good is implicitly violent (against evil), so there can be no 'pure' good.
                        From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction