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Ideas for 'works', 'works' and 'Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed)'

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14 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science [Derrida]
     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 [Derrida]
     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 [Derrida, by May]
     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 [Derrida]
     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 / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 1. Nature of Metaphysics
Maybe analysis seeks the 'nominal essence', and metaphysics seeks the 'real essence' [Locke, by Mumford]
     Full Idea: Locke's distinction would make the 'nominal essence' the target for conceptual analysis and the 'real essence' the target for substantive metaphysics.
     From: report of John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694]) by Stephen Mumford - Laws in Nature 08.2
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 4. Metaphysics as Science
I am just an under-labourer, clearing the ground in preparation for knowledge [Locke]
     Full Idea: 'Tis ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], Epistle)
     A reaction: A famous statement of the new humility of empirical philosophy, which defers to science as the great advancer of knowledge. Personally I view scientists as under-labourers, who discover the physical facts which are needed for wisdom.
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 3. Hermeneutics
Interpretations can be interpreted, so there is no original 'meaning' available [Derrida]
     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 blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
     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.
Hermeneutics is hostile, trying to overcome the other person's difference [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
     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 [Derrida]
     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
The idea of being as persistent presence, and meaning as conscious intelligibility, are self-destructive [Derrida, by Glendinning]
     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.
Sincerity can't be verified, so fiction infuses speech, and hence reality also [Derrida]
     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 [Derrida]
     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
We aim to explore the limits of expression (as in Mallarmé's poetry) [Derrida]
     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