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Literature

Derrida: Thinking The Impossible

Roger Caldwell considers whether it’s possible to consider Derrida.

In all commentaries on Derrida sooner or later you will find the assurance that his argumentation is rigorous. This is surprising, in two respects. Firstly, commentators on philosophers such as Hume or Kant rarely feel the need to reassure the reader in this way. And secondly, these assurances of Derrida’s rigorousness often come in the context of arguments that not only do not give the appearance of being rigorous, but scarcely appear to be arguments at all – for example, arguments based on verbal punning, on a seemingly random association of ideas, or generalizing from what appear to be inadequate or eccentric data. Even supporters of Derrida like Richard Rorty have not hesitated to call his arguments “terrible”.

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