In this Very Short Introduction, Simon Glendinning explores both the difficulty and significance of the work of Derrida. He presents Derrida's challenging ideas as making a significant contribution to, and providing a powerful reading of, our philosophical heritage. Defending Derrida against many of the charges that were placed against him, he attempts to show why Derrrida's work causes such extreme reactions.

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Questions for Thought and Discussion

• What do you understand by Derrida's claim that there is a 'death effect' associated with photographs of people.
• What political motive do you think Derrida had when he tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent an authorial 'head-shot' photograph of himself being published?
• What more is there to 'understanding the meaning of a word' than knowing how it is used?
• What do you think Derrida means by logocentrism?
• What do you think Derrida means by ethnocentrism?
• What do you think Derrida means by phonocentrism?
• Is Derrida right to think that attention to the structure and functioning of writing tells us something about the use of language in general?
• What do you think Derrida means by deconstruction?
• Can we forgive the unforgivable?
• Is every 'gift' really just a moment in an economy of exchange?
• Is every ideal form of political community somehow less than ideal?
• How would you explain the idea of the difference between human beings and other animals?
• Do you think Derrida supposes that, as far as the interpretation of a text is concerned' anything goes?
• Derrida is sometimes called a 'postmodernist'. What, if anything, is right about that label?
• Derrida is sometimes called a 'poststructuralist'. What, if anything, is right about that label?
• Derrida is sometimes called a 'Continental philosopher'. What, if anything, is right about that label?

Further Reading

• Geoffrey Bennington, Not Half No End: Militantly Melancholic Essays in Memory of Jacques Derrida, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
• Peggy Kamuf, To Follow: The Wake of Jacques Derrida (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.)
• Michael Naas, Derrida From Now On (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008)
• Nicholas Royle, In Memory of Jacques Derrida (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009)
• Sarah Wood, Derrida's Writing and Difference: A Reader's Guide (London: Continuum, 2009)