When1: 1967
When2: 1982
Who: Jacques Derrida [Derrida, Jacques]
What: philosopher
Where: Algeria/Paris, France
works\ Of Grammatology [1967]; Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs [1967]; Margins of Philosophy [1972]; Glas [1974]; Post Card [1980]
Detail: He lived 1930 to 2004 and studied language relative to philosophy. He analyzed and criticized texts based on ideas about language relativity {deconstruction, Derrida}. His criticism contrasted with that of Roland Barthes.
Epistemology
Spoken and written symbols are physical and arbitrary. Spoken and written symbols are always in context. Because meanings differ in context, meaning can be unobtainable {undecidability, meaning}. As speech or writing progresses, sign meaning changes slightly {différence}, as context changes. Thus, signs cannot know consciousness or truth. Speech expresses mental thoughts {logocentric}, and writing is secondary.
Philosophy depends on opposite-concept pairs, such as soul-body, which are not useful or real but are only about language use.
Mind
The Other must contrast with the Self. This idea was against the idea of Emmanuel Levinas that the Other is absolute.
Social Sciences>Philosophy>History>Mind
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Date Modified: 2022.0224