Thinking Activity : Derrida and Deconstruction

 Thinking activity on 'Derrida' and 'Deconstruction'

Hello readers , 

Here I'm going to write this blog as an activity of my understanding of the term Deconstruction by Jacques Derrida which we have already discussed in our classroom. So let's begin …

Jacques Derrida :

 Derrida is most celebrated as the principal exponent of deconstruction, a term he coined for the critical examination of the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” inherent in Western philosophy since the time of the ancient Greeks. These oppositions are characteristically “binary” and “hierarchical,”..... more

• What do you understand by "Deconstruction" ?

As we know that Deconstruction in not once and at all finally define. Deconstruction is a very difficult idea to define. It's not a very destructive activity , it's not something breaking down something for sake of something . Deconstruction is not deconstrictive activity but an inquiry into the foundations. The very condition Derrida argues is based on distinctions or binary oppositions. Some of us thaughts that Deconstruction is a negative term , but in this matter  i want to say that  in French , 'Deconstruction' too obviously implied on annihilation or a negative reduction much closer to Nietzschean 'demolition'.

• "The influence of Heidegger 

on Derrida"

Heidegger and his philosophy deals with some important themes which Derrida continues in his own philosophy. 

One of the themes is the question of deconstruction, in French - is one of the many direct connections between Heidegger & Derrida - that is the direct connection between Heidegger & Derrida . Heidegger wanted to destroy or dismantle the entire tradition of western philosophy by persuing the question of "being of Beings" 

' Being and Time' 

Germa: 'Sein and Zeit' , 1927 by Martin Heidegger.

Heidegger said being of Beings is repressed and neglected and so it is necessary to dismantle western philosophy and Derrida argues that whole question of writing is neglected and repressed in the entire tradition of western thought.

• How Derrida deconsrtucts the idea of arbitrariness ? 

Derrida points out that the meaning of the word is nothing but the other word. What connects a word with its meaning or as signal convention and the convention is always social.

• The idea of 

"Metaphysics of Presence"

By Derrida western philosophy is built on the differences, binary oppositions, just like human language, but , By Saussure there is no positive element in language , but only negative one. So, presence of someone can only be understood a absence of something else and that bias is built into western philosophy. 

For example,

• What is woman?

Woman is  seen as absence is the manliness.

• What is darkness?

Darkness is absence is light. 

So, there is a tendency to privilege or consider something which is present and superior…

Derrida draws attention to the fact that what we look in dictionary and what we find is not its meaning but a group of another word. For example , word "interest" means hobby or group of people or share in business. So , these are words , like the word "intrest" . The meaning of word is set of another . And we feel that we have understood.  We find that one word leads to another word and that word leads to another to yet another… and finally we never come out of the dictionary , if we stop , it's because of an illusion that we have understood. So, saussurean idea is that meaning is something that is in the mind . Saussurean sign is equal to signifiers l which signifies something; but Derridean sign is free play of signifiers, signifying nothing. Derrida is drawing attention towards difference between speech and writing he questions privilege of speech over writing. Derrida says is metaphysics of presence - so what difference does is that is undoes metaphysics of presence.  For Derrida , it was necessary to begin thinking that there was no begin thinking that the center could not be thought is the form of a present- being that the center had no natural site , that it was not a fixed locus but a fiction , a sort of nonlocus in which an infinite number of sign - substitutions came into play . This rupture , this decontamination of the center thus created a world where " the absence of the transcendental signified extends the domain and the play of signification infinitely". 

For more information watch these videos :

 

 

 

 

Examples:

 Park Avenue "Beer Shampoo"

 

In this advertisement firstly we will going to be confused about the main object , that which "beer"(alcohol) or "bear"(animal) it talks about ? With only hearing we can't define or understanding this advertisement , at last in this ad when the bottle of shampoo with the spelling is coming then we come to know that what actually it is ! So, first 

 

Second example,

The poem , 

Under a Copper-Sulphate Sky by Karen J McDonnell 

Today is a wide-open, death-throes-of-autumn day.

Where there is sun, there is heat.

In shade, 

click here  (for full poem), 

And above me, a copper-sulphate blue sky. 

In this poem , we if you don't know that Copper - sulfate is blue , you can't understand this poem that what the poet actually wants to say in this poem. 

Copper- sulphate :

Sky:

So, in this poem poet matches the colour of (Blue) sky with copper- sulphate (Blue). 

Third example:

 "Happydent -chewing gum "

In this advertisement there is very high level of confusion that what it actually wants to show , at the first time when I was seen this advertisement I had thought that it is about light or lamp ot toothpaste or toothbrush or street light , but at the last part of this advertisement when the name is coming then I'm able to understand it advertisement. But, if We don't know that what happydent is then we have facing difficulty to understanding this advertisement , if there is no name of chewing gum then nobody can identify this advertisement that what it actually wants to show . 

Thank you …

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