Of Grammatology - Contents

Contents

Derrida argues that throughout the Western philosophical tradition, writing has been considered as merely a derivative form of speech, and thus as a "fall" from the "full presence" of speech. In the course of the work he deconstructs this position as it appears in the work of several writers, showing the myriad aporias and ellipses to which this leads them. Derrida does not claim to be giving a critique of the work of these thinkers, because he does not believe it possible to escape from operating with such oppositions. 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 and writing.

Read more about this topic:  Of Grammatology

Famous quotes containing the word contents:

    Such as boxed
    Their feelings properly, complete to tags
    A box for dark men and a box for Other
    Would often find the contents had been scrambled.
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    Conversation ... is like the table of contents of a dull book.... All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayed in it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance.
    Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)

    Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
    Is still to stick to the contents of the mind
    And the desire to believe in a metaphor.
    It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
    Belief, that what it believes in is not true.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)