1.
Jacques Derrida
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Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in Algeria. Derrida is best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he discussed in numerous texts and he is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy. During his career Derrida published more than 40 books, together with hundreds of essays and he also influenced architecture, music, art, and art criticism. Particularly in his writings, Derrida addressed ethical and political themes in his work. Some critics consider Speech and Phenomena to be his most important work, others cite Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, and Margins of Philosophy. These writings influenced various activists and political movements and he became a well-known and influential public figure, while his approach to philosophy and the notorious difficulty of his work made him controversial. Derrida was the third of five children and his elder brother Paul Moïse died at less than three months old, the year before Derrida was born, leading him to suspect throughout his life his role as a replacement for his deceased brother. Derrida spent his youth in Algiers and in El-Biar, on the first day of the school year in 1942, French administrators in Algeria — implementing anti-Semitic quotas set by the Vichy government — expelled Derrida from his lycée. He secretly skipped school for a rather than attend the Jewish lycée formed by displaced teachers and students. In this adolescent period, Derrida found in the works of philosophers and writers an instrument of revolt against family and his reading also included Camus and Sartre. In the late 1940s, he attended the Lycée Bugeaud and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, on his first day at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1952, Derrida met Louis Althusser, with whom he became friends. After visiting the Husserl Archive in Leuven, Belgium, he completed his masters degree in philosophy on Edmund Husserl and he then passed the highly competitive agrégation exam in 1956. Derrida received a grant for studies at Harvard University, and he spent the 1956–57 academic year reading Joyces Ulysses at the Widener Library, in June 1957, he married the psychoanalyst Marguerite Aucouturier in Boston. During the Algerian War of Independence of 1954–1962, Derrida asked to teach children in lieu of military service, teaching French. Following the war, from 1960 to 1964, Derrida taught philosophy at the Sorbonne and his wife, Marguerite, gave birth to their first child, Pierre, in 1963. In 1964, on the recommendation of Louis Althusser and Jean Hyppolite, Derrida got a permanent teaching position at the ENS, in 1965 Derrida began an association with the Tel Quel group of literary and philosophical theorists, which lasted for seven years. Derridas subsequent distance from the Tel Quel group, after 1971, has attributed to his reservations about their embrace of Maoism. At the same colloquium Derrida would meet Jacques Lacan and Paul de Man, a second son, Jean, was born in 1967
2.
John Searle
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John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Widely noted for his contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and social philosophy and he received the Jean Nicod Prize in 2000, the National Humanities Medal in 2004, and the Mind & Brain Prize in 2006. Among his notable concepts is the Chinese room argument against strong artificial intelligence, Searles father, G. W. Searle, an electrical engineer, was employed by AT&T Corporation, while his mother, Hester Beck Searle, was a physician. A. His first two faculty jobs were in Oxford as Research Lecturer and Lecturer and Tutor at Christ Church and he has five honorary doctorate degrees from four different countries and is an honorary visiting professor at Tsing Hua University and East China Normal University. While an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Searle was the secretary of Students against Joseph McCarthy, McCarthy was then the junior senator from Wisconsin. In 1959, Searle began to teach at Berkeley and was the first tenured professor to join the 1964–5 Free Speech Movement, in The Campus War, A Sympathetic Look at the University in Agony, Searle investigates the causes behind the campus protests of the era. In it he declares that, I have been attacked by both the House Un-American Activities Committee and, stylistically, the attacks are interestingly similar. Both rely heavily on insinuation and innuendo, and both display a hatred – one might almost say terror – of close analysis and dissection of argument and he asserts that My wife was threatened that I would be assassinated or violently attacked. In the late 1980s, Searle, along with other landlords, the rental board refused to consider Searles petition and Searle filed suit, charging a violation of due process. The court described the debate as a morass of political invective, ad hominem attack and he called for the realization that the US is in a more-or-less permanent state of war with these forces. Moreover, a course of action would be to deny terrorists the use of foreign territory from which to stage their attacks. Finally, he alluded to the nature of the conflict. In March 2017, Searle was the subject of sexual assault allegations, Berkeleys alleged protection of Searle was seen in some quarters as a recurrence of earlier problems in dealing with similar accusations against other staff. The suit, filed in a California court on March 21,2017 and it was reported that n early March, Searle’s students learned he would no longer be teaching his undergraduate Philosophy of Mind course. Beyond citing personal reasons, university officials provided no explanation for Searle’s departure, Searles early work, which did a great deal to establish his reputation, was on speech acts. He attempted to synthesize ideas from many colleagues – including J. L. Austin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, midgley – with his own thesis that such acts are constituted by the rules of language. He also drew on the work of H. Paul Grice, Hare and Stenius, strawson, John Rawls and William P. In his 1969 book Speech Acts, Searle sets out to all these elements to give his account of illocutionary acts
3.
Northwestern University
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Composed of twelve schools and colleges, Northwestern offers 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees. Northwestern was founded in 1851 by John Evans, for whom the City of Evanston is named and its founding purpose was to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that today includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Instruction began in 1855, women were admitted in 1869, today, the main campus is a 240-acre parcel in Evanston, along the shores of Lake Michigan 12 miles north of downtown Chicago. The universitys law, medical, and professional schools are located on a 25-acre campus in Chicagos Streeterville neighborhood, in 2008, the university opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar with programs in journalism and communication. In 2016, Northwestern opened its San Francisco space at 44 Montgomery St. which hosts journalism, engineering, Northwestern is a large research university with a comprehensive doctoral program and it attracts over $650 million in sponsored research each year. Northwestern has the tenth largest university endowment in the United States, in 2017, the university accepted 9. 0% of undergraduate applicants from a pool of 37,255. Northwestern is a member of the Big Ten Conference and remains the only private university in the conference. The Northwestern Wildcats compete in 19 intercollegiate sports in the NCAAs Division I Big Ten Conference, on January 28,1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the North-Western University, making it the first chartered university in Illinois. The schools nine founders, all of whom were Methodists, knelt in prayer, John Evans, for whom Evanston is named, bought 379 acres of land along Lake Michigan in 1853, and Philo Judson developed plans for what would become the city of Evanston, Illinois. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5,1855, to raise funds for its construction, Northwestern sold $100 perpetual scholarships entitling the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. Willard Residential College is named in her honor, Northwestern admitted its first women students in 1869, and the first woman was graduated in 1874. Northwestern fielded its first intercollegiate football team in 1882, later becoming a member of the Big Ten Conference. In the 1870s and 1880s, Northwestern affiliated itself with already existing schools of law, medicine, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the oldest law school in Chicago. The Association of American Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917, in 1933, a proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago was considered but rejected. Northwestern was also one of the first six universities in the country to establish a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in the 1920s, after the golden years of the 1920s, the Great Depression in the United States hit Northwestern hard. Its annual income dropped 25 percent from $4.8 million in 1930-31 to $3.6 million in 1933-34. Investment income shrank, fewer parents could pay full tuition, and annual giving from alumni, the university responded with two salary cuts of 10 percent each for all employees. It imposed a freeze, a building freeze, and slashed appropriations for maintenance, books
4.
The New York Review of Books
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The New York Review of Books is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of important books is a literary activity. Esquire called it the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language, in 1970 writer Tom Wolfe described it as the chief theoretical organ of Radical Chic. The Review publishes long-form reviews and essays, often by well-known writers, original poetry, in 1979 the magazine founded the London Review of Books, which soon became independent. In 1990 it founded an Italian edition, la Rivista dei Libri, Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein edited the paper together from its founding in 1963, until her death in 2006. From then until his death in 2017, Silvers was the sole editor, the Review has a book publishing division, established in 1999, called New York Review Books, which publishes classics, collections and childrens books. Since 2010, the journal has hosted a blog written by its contributors. The Review celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013, and a Martin Scorsese film called The 50 Year Argument documents the history, the New York Review was founded by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein, together with publisher A. Whitney Ellsworth and writer Elizabeth Hardwick. They were backed and encouraged by Epsteins husband, Jason Epstein, a president at Random House and editor of Vintage Books. In 1959 Hardwick had published an essay, The Decline of Book Reviewing, in Harpers, Jason Epstein knew that book publishers would advertise their books in the new publication, since they had no other outlet for promoting new books. The group turned to the Epsteins friend Silvers, who had been an editor at The Paris Review and was still at Harpers, to edit the publication, and Silvers asked Barbara Epstein to co-edit with him. She was known as the editor at Doubleday of Anne Franks Diary of a Young Girl, among other books, Silvers and Epstein sent books to the writers we knew and admired most. We asked for three words in three weeks in order to show what a book review should be, and practically everyone came through. The first issue of the Review was published on February 1,1963 and it prompted nearly 1,000 letters to the editors asking for the Review to continue. The New Yorker called it surely the best first issue of any magazine ever, after the success of the first issue, the editors assembled a second issue to demonstrate that the Review was not a one-shot affair. The founders then collected investments from a circle of friends and acquaintances, the Review began regular biweekly publication in November 1963. Silvers said of the philosophy, that there was no subject we couldnt deal with. And if there was no book, we would deal with it anyway and we tried hard to avoid books that were simply competent rehearsals of familiar subjects, and we hoped to find books that would establish something fresh, something original
5.
Michel Foucault
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Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, philologist and literary critic. His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels and his thought has been highly influential both for academic and for activist groups, especially those working within contemporary sociology, cultural studies, and critical theory. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book and these first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called archaeology. In 1970 he was admitted to the Collège de France, membership of which he retained until his death and he also became active in a number of left-wing groups involved in anti-racist campaigns, anti-human rights abuses movements, and the struggle for penal reform. He went on to publish The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, in these books he developed archaeological and genealogical methods which emphasized the role which power plays in the evolution of discourse in society. Paul-Michel Foucault was born on 15 October 1926 in the city of Poitiers, west-central France and he had been named after his father, Dr. His father was a local surgeon, having been born in Fontainebleau before moving to Poitiers. She was the daughter of prosperous surgeon Dr. Prosper Malapert, Paul Foucault eventually took over his father-in-laws medical practice, while his wife took charge of their large mid-19th-century house, Le Piroir, in the village of Vendeuvre-du-Poitou. Together the couple had three children, a girl named Francine and two boys, Paul-Michel and Denys, all of whom shared the same hair and bright blue eyes. The children were raised to be nominal Roman Catholics, attending mass at the Church of Saint-Porchair, in later life, Foucault would reveal very little about his childhood. Describing himself as a delinquent, he claimed his father was a bully who would sternly punish him. In 1930, Foucault began his two years early at the local Lycée Henry-IV. Here he undertook two years of education before entering the main lycée, where he stayed until 1936. He then undertook his first four years of education at the same establishment, excelling in French, Greek, Latin and history but doing poorly at arithmetic. In 1939, the Second World War broke out and France was occupied by Nazi Germany until 1945, his parents opposed the occupation and the Vichy regime, in 1940, Foucaults mother enrolled him in the Collège Saint-Stanislas, a strict Roman Catholic institution run by the Jesuits. Lonely, he described his years there as the ordeal, but excelled academically, particularly in philosophy, history, in 1942, he entered his final year, the terminale, where he focused on the study of philosophy, earning his baccalauréat in 1943. Returning to the local Lycée Henry-IV, he studied history and philosophy for a year, aided by a personal tutor and these ideas influenced Foucault, who adopted Hyppolites conviction that philosophy must be developed through a study of history
6.
Gossip
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Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others, the act of is also known as dishing or tattling. Gossip has been researched in terms of its evolutionary psychology origins and this has found gossip to be an important means by which people can monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity. Indirect reciprocity is an interaction in which one actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has also identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist. Social media has also provided a faster way to share gossip. In only a matter of minutes, harmful gossip and rumors can spread online from one place in the world to another, the term is sometimes used to specifically refer to the spreading of dirt and misinformation, as through excited discussion of scandals. Some newspapers carry gossip columns which detail the social and personal lives of celebrities or of élite members of certain communities. The word is from Old English godsibb, from god and sibb, in the 16th century, the word assumed the meaning of a person, mostly a woman, one who delights in idle talk, a newsmonger, a tattler. In the early 19th century, the term was extended from the talker to the conversation of such persons, the verb to gossip, meaning to be a gossip, first appears in Shakespeare. The term originates from the bedroom at the time of childbirth, giving birth used to be a social, ladies only, event, in which a pregnant womans female relatives and neighbours would gather. As with any social gathering there was chattering and this is where the term came to mean talk of others. Peter Vajda identifies gossip as a form of violence, noting that it is essentially a form of attack. Gossip is thought by many to one person while disempowering another. Accordingly, many companies have policies in their employee handbooks against gossip. TLK Healthcare cites as examples of gossip, tattletailing to the boss without intention of furthering a solution or speaking to co-workers about something else has done to upset us. Low self-esteem and a desire to fit in are frequently cited as motivations for workplace gossip, breaks existing bonds by ostracizing individuals within an organization. Enhances ones social status/power/prestige within the organization, inform individuals as to what is considered socially acceptable behavior within the organization. This causes the gossipers coercive power to increase, reward, when a gossiper tells positive information about a person, their recipient might believe that the gossiper will also spread positive information about them
7.
Obscurantism
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Obscurantism is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts of some subject matter from becoming known. Therefore, an obscurantist is someone who actively opposes enlightenment and the consequent social reform, in the 18th century, Enlightenment philosophers applied the term obscurantist to any enemy of intellectual enlightenment and the liberal diffusion of knowledge. Moreover, in the realm of organized religion, obscurantism is a strain of thought independent of theologic allegiance. The distinction is that fundamentalism presupposes sincere religious belief, whereas obscurantism is based upon minority manipulation of the faith as political praxis. Thus, in the New Yorker magazine article Selective Intelligence, Seymour Hersh observes that Strauss endorsed the Noble Lie concept, the myths politicians use in maintaining a cohesive society. Prof. Shadia Drury criticized Strausss acceptance of dissembling and deception of the populace as the justice of the wise. In criticizing Natural Right and History, she said that Strauss thinks that the superiority of the philosophers is an intellectual superiority. Is the only interpreter who gives a reading to Plato. Leo Strauss also was criticized for proposing the notion of esoteric meanings to ancient texts, rather than explicitly presenting his thoughts, the philosophers esoteric writing compels the reader to think independently of the text, and so learn. In the Phædrus, Socrates notes that writing does not reply to questions, Strauss noted that one of writings political dangers is students too-readily accepting dangerous ideas—as in the trial of Socrates, wherein the relationship with Alcibiades was used to prosecute him. In observing and maintaining the exoteric – esoteric dichotomy, Strauss was accused of obscurantism and we can, as they did, create insurmountable problems in almost no time flat. We must do more thinking up front if we are not to be surprised and shocked by the consequences of our inventions. Joys proposal for limiting the dissemination of knowledge, in behalf of preserving society, was quickly likened to obscurantism. The second sense of obscurantism denotes making knowledge abstruse, that is, in the 19th and 20th centuries obscurantism became a polemical term for accusing an author of deliberately writing obscurely, in order to hide his or her intellectual vacuousness. Philosophers who are neither empiricists nor positivists often are considered obscurantists when describing the concepts of their disciplines. For philosophic reasons, such authors might modify or reject verifiability, falsifiability, immanuel Kant employed technical terms that were not commonly understood, by the layman. Because of his style which was obscure, Kant was properly understood by exceedingly few, and it is as if all the philosophical writers, who since Kant had had some success, had devoted themselves to writing still more unintelligibly than Kant. G. W. F. Hegels philosophy, and the philosophies of those he influenced, analytic and positivistic philosophers, such as A. J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, and the critical-rationalist Karl Popper, accused Hegel and Hegelianism of being obscure
8.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
9.
Positions
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Positions is a 1972 book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Positions consists of a collection of interviews, Derrida talks about his earlier works and their relationships. He said that his 1962 essay, Edmund Husserls Origin of Geometry, An Introduction, already contained many elements of his thought and he added, that essay can be read as the other side of Speech and Phenomena. On the relationship between his three works of 1967, Derrida explained, Speech and Phenomena is perhaps the essay which I like most. Doubtless I could have bound it as a note to one or the other of the other two works. Of Grammatology refers to it and economizes its development, but in a classical philosophical architecture, Speech. Entretien avec Henri Ronse», pp. 9–24, 9–23 «Sémiologie et grammatologie, entretien avec Julia Kristeva», pp. 25–50, 25–46 «Positions. Entretien avec Jean-Louis Houdebine et Guy Scarpetta», pp. 51–133, colloquio con Lucette Finas», pp. 119–1351972 Positions, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris 1975 Posizioni. Scene, atti, figure della disseminazione, Bertani, Verona 1975, translators, M. Chiappini and G. Sertoli 1981 Positions, trans
10.
Of Grammatology
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Of Grammatology is a 1967 book by French philosopher Jacques Derrida that has been called a foundational text for deconstructive criticism. It is one of three books, the others being Speech and Phenomena and Writing and Difference, that Derrida published in 1967, the English translation by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was first published in 1976. A revised edition of the translation was published in 1997, a further revised edition was published in January 2016. Derrida argues that throughout the Western philosophical tradition, writing has been considered as merely a form of speech. In the course of the work he deconstructs this position as it appears in the work of writers, showing the myriad aporias. Derrida does not claim to be giving a critique of the work of these thinkers, nevertheless, he calls for a new science of grammatology that would relate to such questions in a new way. Of Grammatology introduced many of the concepts which Derrida would employ in later work, especially in relation to linguistics, the book starts with a review of Saussures linguistic structuralism, as presented in the Course in General Linguistics. In particular, Derrida analyzes the concept of sign, which for Saussure has the two components of sound and meaning. These components are also called signifier and signified, Derrida quotes Saussure, “Language and writing are two distinct systems of signs, the second exists for the sole purpose of representing the first. Of Grammatology is one of three books which Derrida published in 1967, and which served to establish his reputation, the other two were La voix et le phénomène, translated as Speech and Phenomena, and Lécriture et la différance, translated as Writing and Difference. It has been called a text for deconstructive criticism. The Rhetoric of Blindness, Jacques Derridas Reading of Rousseau, in Blindness and Insight, excerpts from Chapter 2, Linguistics and Grammatology
11.
Speech and Phenomena
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Derrida also develops key discussions of the terms deconstruction and différance. Derrida commented that Speech and Phenomena is the essay I value the most, derridas best known work on Husserls phenomenology, it is widely considered one of his most important philosophical works. This early thesis then formed the basis for his 1959 paper Genesis and Structure, Derrida also translated Husserls Origin of Geometry from German into French and published his translation of this article with a book length introduction in 1962. Derrida identifies his theme in the first chapter as the sense of the word sign for Husserl. Derrida notes that Husserl makes a distinction in the use of the word sign between expression and indication. For Husserl, Derrida argues, the expression and the indication are both signs but the latter is a sign without meaning or sense, expression intends towards an ideal meaning and is tied to the possibility of spoken language. Originally translated into English by David B, for commentary on Speech and Phenomena see Leonard Lawlors book Derrida and Husserl and Joshua Katess book Essential History
12.
Writing and Difference
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Writing and Difference is a book by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, collecting some of the early lectures and essays that established his international fame. It was published in 1967 alongside Of Grammatology and Speech and Phenomena, the collection contains the essay Cogito and the History of Madness, a critique of Michel Foucault. In Violence and Metaphysics, Derrida comments on the writings of Emmanuel Levinas and he honors Levinas for his ethical philosophy of openness to the Other. Indeed, he goes along with the idea that to live for the Other is the highest good, but he challenges the idea that only face-to-face interaction can be ethical. Whereas Levinas sees written communication as dead and unresponsive, Derrida argues that writing can be just as valuable a space for ethical encounter and he writes, in characteristic support for writing, Is it not possible to invert all of Levinas’s statements on this point. By showing, for example, that writing can assist itself, for it has time and freedom, the lecture is titled Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
13.
Glas (book)
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Glas is a 1974 book by Jacques Derrida. It combines a reading of Hegels philosophical works and of Jean Genets autobiographical writing, one of Derridas more inscrutable books, its form and content invite a reflection on the nature of literary genre and of writing. Following the structure of Jean Genets Ce qui est resté dun Rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés bien réguliers, et foutu aux chiottes, the left column is about Hegel, the right column is about Genet. Sometimes words are cut in half by a quotation which may last several pages, allan Megill described the text as a literary-philosophical collage. Typography is an important part of the presentation and argument. Gregor Dotzauer, writing for Der Tagesspiegel, argues that the two columns are explicitly phallic symbols, opposing each other in a struggle that neither can win. But as Spivak points out, the two columns also overflow with signification—they are also architectural elements, capital, pyramid, pillar, belfry, in between those columns Derrida attempts to place his own signature. Hegel certainly is a Father to the author, and Derrida notes that his own father had died during the process of his writing Glas, Derridas signature, the D, is found in many places, The debris of d-words is scattered all over the pages. Derrida describes, writes d, and cries d, in this relationship, the authors signature becomes the guarantor of the texts truth, it becomes its surrogate parent, according to Jane Marie Todd. The Genet column discusses his autobiographical writings, where one of the issues is Genets very name—it is not that of his father, but of his mother, who abandoned him shortly after birth. According to Todd, in the mother who abandons her child, leaving only her name. Glas is described as experimental and obscure, literary theorist Geoffrey Hartman considered the texts playfulness exhilarating to many within the discipline, acknowledging that to others it may prove a disadvantage. Morris Dickstein, writing for The New York Sun, called it a commentary on the work of Hegel. John Sturrock, reviewing the English translation of Glas for The New York Times, in his estimation reading the book is a scandalously random experience given the problem of how to read the two printed columns—consecutively or alternately from section to section. Sturrock praises the English translation, but notes that a such as Glas by definition cannot be translated. The notion that translation achieves a semantic identity from one language to another, the English translation was praised by Ned Lukacher in Modern Language Notes as an almost absolutely singular and exemplary achievement. Compellingly, Glas has often cited as evidence that deconstruction might theorize hypertext or that hypertext might instantiate deconstruction. Moreover, as scholars like Peter Krapp observed, both Ted Nelsons Computer Lib / Dream Machines and Derridas Glas look astonishingly similar and argue parallel points, according to Denis Donoghue and Morris Dickstein, Geoffrey Hartman is heavily influenced by Glas
14.
The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond
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The Post Card, From Socrates to Freud and Beyond is a 1980 book by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It is a satire of epistolary literature, the first half of the book, titled Envois, contains a series of love letters addressed by Derrida to an unnamed loved one. In one of the letters, dated 6 June 1977, Derrida tells about his time spent in London with Jonathan Culler and Cynthia Chase, who had recently married. After describing Platos posture in the picture, and speculating about what he may have been doing behind Socratess back, Derrida says. The card immediately seemed to me, how to put it, obscene. For the moment, myself, I tell you that I see Plato getting an erection in Socrates back and see the insane hubris of his prick, an interminable, disproportionate erection. Slowly sliding, still warm, under Socrates right leg Imagine the day, wants to emit. to sow the entire earth, to send the same fertile card to everyone. In 2014 a feature based on the book was released. Love in the Post is directed by Joanna Callaghan and co-written by Martin McQuillan, the film features an unseen interview with Derrida and contributions from Geoffrey Bennington, J. Hillis Miller, Sam Weber, Ellen Burt and Catherine Malabou
15.
Acts of Literature
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Acts of Literature is a 1991 philosophical and literary book based on essays by Jacques Derrida. This book is the first collection of Derridas essays on Western-culture literary texts, derek Attridge edited the book in close association with Derrida himself. Derrida discusses authors such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Stéphane Mallarmé, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, a part highly cited by scholars is the chapter dedicated to James Joyce, ‘Ulysses’ Gramophone, Hear Say Yes In Joyce. 1st edition published by Routledge, November 20,1991, Review by Nick Groom The Modern Language Review, Vol.90, No
16.
Specters of Marx
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Specters of Marx, The state of the debt, the work of mourning and the new international is a 1993 book by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It was first presented as a series of lectures during “Whither Marxism. ”, the title Spectres of Marx is an allusion to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels statement at the beginning of The Communist Manifesto that a spectre haunting Europe. For Derrida, the spirit of Marx is even more relevant now since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, with its death the spectre of communism begins to make visits on the Earth. Derrida seeks to do the work of inheriting from Marx, that is, not communism, but of the philosophy of responsibility, at the intellectual level, it is apparent in Francis Fukuyamas proclamation of the end of ideology. Derrida went on, in his talks on this topic, to list 10 plagues of the capital or global system, and then to an account of the claim the creation of a new grouping of activism, called the New International. Derridas ten plagues are, Employment has undergone a change of kind, e. g. underemployment, reinforcement of territories in a world of supposed freedom of movement. As in, Fortress Europe and in the number of new walls and barriers being erected around the world, both between countries and between international trade blocs, United States - Japan - Europe. The undecidable conflicts between protectionism and free trade, the unstoppable flow of illegal drugs, arms, etc. In effect the basis for mass starvation and demoralisation for developing countries, often the loans benefiting only a small elite, for luxury items, e. g. cars, air conditioning etc. but being paid back by poorer workers. The inability to control to any meaningful extent trade within the biggest ‘black market’ Spread of nuclear weapons, the restriction of nuclear capacity can no longer be maintained by leading states since it is only knowledge and cannot be contained. The phantom of mythic national identities fueling tension in semi-developed countries, in particular the non-democratic power gained by drug cartels. The hypocrisy of such statutes in the face of aggression on the part of the economically dominant states. International law is exercised against the weaker nations. On the New International, Derrida has this to say, The ‘New International’ is an untimely link, without coordination, without party, without country, without national community, without co-citizenship, without common belonging to a class. The name of New International is given here to what calls to the friendship of an alliance without institution among those who, continue to be inspired by at least one of the spirits of Marx or of Marxism. Deconstruction Deconstruction-and-religion Hauntology What is Ideology, excerpt from Spectres of Marx Marcus Verhaeg Derridas Specters of Marx and The Recognition of Pointless Identity
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Deconstruction
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Deconstruction is a name commonly associated with philosopher Jacques Derridas critical outlook over the relationship between text and meaning. Derridas approach consists in conducting readings of texts with an ear to what runs counter to the unity or intended sense of a particular text. The purpose is to expose that the object of language and what upon which any text is founded is irreducibly complex, unstable, many debates in continental philosophy surrounding ontology, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and philosophy of language refer to Derridas observations. Deconstruction also inspired deconstructivism in architecture and remains important within art, music, Jacques Derridas 1967 work Of Grammatology introduced the majority of ideas influential within deconstruction. According to Derrida and taking inspiration from the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, language as a system of signs, as a consequence meaning is never present, but rather is deferred to other signs. Derrida refers to the — in this view, mistaken — belief that there is a self-sufficient, a concept then must be understood in the context of its opposite, such as being/nothingness, normal/abnormal, speech/writing, etc. Further, Derrida contends that in a classical philosophical opposition we are not dealing with the coexistence of a vis-a-vis. One of the two terms governs the other, or has the hand, signified over signifier, intelligible over sensible, speech over writing, activity over passivity. The first task of deconstruction would be to find and overturn these oppositions inside a text or a corpus of texts, but the final objective of deconstruction is not to surpass all oppositions, because it is assumed they are structurally necessary to produce sense. They simply cannot be suspended once and for all, the hierarchy of dual oppositions always reestablishes itself. Deconstruction only points to the necessity of an analysis that can make explicit the decisions. To be effective, deconstruction needs to create new terms, not to synthesize the concepts in opposition and this explains why Derrida always proposes new terms in his deconstruction, not as a free play but as a pure necessity of analysis, to better mark the intervals. Derridas original use of the word deconstruction was a translation of Destruktion, heideggers term referred to a process of exploring the categories and concepts that tradition has imposed on a word, and the history behind them. An assertion that texts outlive their authors, and become part of a set of cultural habits equal to, if not surpassing, the importance of authorial intent. A re-valuation of certain classic western dialectics, poetry vs. philosophy, reason vs. revelation, structure vs. creativity, episteme vs. techne, etc. To this end, Derrida follows a line of modern philosophers. However, like Nietzsche, Derrida is not satisfied merely with such an interpretation of Plato. Différance is the observation that the meanings of words come from their synchrony with other words within the language, understanding language according to Derrida required an understanding of both viewpoints of linguistic analysis
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Derrida (film)
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Derrida is a 2002 American documentary film directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman about the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival before being released theatrically on October 23,2002, the film uses interviews shot by the filmmakers, footage of Derridas lectures and speaking engagements, and personal footage of Derrida at home with his friends and family. In several scenes, Ziering Kofman also reads excerpts from Derridas work or otherwise describes aspects of his life, Derrida also focuses on Derridas thesis that scholars tend to ignore important biographical information when discussing philosophers lives. In one scene, Derrida comments that he would be most interested in hearing about famous philosophers sex lives because this topic is addressed in their writings. The filmmakers respond to many of criticisms by probing Derrida on various aspects of his own personal life. The film also follows Derrida during a trip to South Africa where he visits Nelson Mandelas former prison cell, Derrida states that his own childhood experiences with anti-Semitism have heightened his sensitivity to racial issues. At several points, Derrida shows the philosopher applying his theory of deconstruction to the film itself, Derrida often challenges the filmmaking process and argues against the capability of any film to portray him accurately. The film also includes scenes in which Derrida analyzes previously recorded footage of himself. In one such scene, Derrida telescopically watches a video of himself analyzing footage of himself, nicholas Royle argues that the films labyrinthine, Ouroboros-like structure reinforces several key Derridean tenets, If Dick and Ziering Kofman follow Derrida, Derrida is also following them. Derrida is a film about following, about the compulsiveness and ghostliness of following, of following the camera, of following the story, of following a film. But Derrida is also a film about the impossibility of following, about the consequences and effects of Derridas work vis-à-vis the story of a life, Film critics generally gave Derrida positive reviews, the film has an 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other critics, like The Guardians Peter Bradshaw, found the film whimsical and entertaining but lamented Derridas evasive, Derrida received the Golden Gate Award at the 2002 San Francisco Film Festival and screened in competition for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Derrida enjoyed the film and appeared at promotional events to discuss the film. In 2005, Routledge published a book, Derrida, which includes the films screenplay, several essays on the film, and interviews with Derrida, Dick. The book describes many of the events followed the films release. This phenomenon prompted Derridas wife to remark to the filmmakers, I hear youve made him into Clint Eastwood, dailleurs, Derrida Official website Derrida at the Internet Movie Database New York Times review Guardian reviews Village Voice review San Francisco Chronicle review
