Book 46 - Jeff Collins "Introducing Derrida"

[jazzy_dave]

Jeff Collins "Introducing Derrida" (Totem Books)




This is the second introductory book to the thoughts of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. He is the inventor of the idea of deconstruction which looks into the cracks between binary opposites. here is an example form the book, a good one i think, as zombies lie between two binary opposite, that being Dead / Alive -

"Between life and death--it's an uncertain space. The zombie might be EITHER alive OR dead. But it cuts across these categories, it's BOTH alive AND dead. Equally it is NEITHER alive NOR dead, since it cannot take on the "full" senses of these terms. True life must preclude true death. The zombie short-circuits the usual logic of distinction. Having both states, it belongs to a different order of things: in terms of life and death, it cannot be decided.

Undecidables are threatening. They poison the comforting sense that we inhabit a world governed by decidable categories. . . .

What if the comfort of order is not to be restored? What if we insist on undecidability? The ceaseless play of EITHER/OR . . .NEITHER/NOR . . .BOTH?"

It is a good primer for all those who want to explore Derrida's world more fully.

This graphic styled book has made Derrida intelligible.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh....damn. I like that thinking!! Definitely some meat there....food for thought is always high on my list. May have to give him a looking over!

*HUGS*

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Sounds a little too deep for me. :p
Hugs, Jon

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

Ha, the liminal space!