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The Introducing series is renowned throughout the world for its ingenious combination of graphic illustration and intelligent, precise text by leading academics on some of the most challenging subjects around. This is an examination of one of the most famous philosophers of the 20th century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Derrida Salad
Writing a review of this book was a bit difficult.It starts out as a very interesting read and then seems to lose a lot of steam due to a lack of organization or any sort of "big picture" analysis that an introduction really needs.Much of Derrida's work consists of responding and critiquing the works of other philosophers.This book does a good job of introducing his various reactions to the works of others and examples of the application of deconstructionism in various areas of Western Culture.It suffers though from a lack of overall organization or any sort of progression (chronological or otherwise) that makes it difficult to tell if you have read a true introduction or just snippets that struck the author's fancy for inclusion.It just feels like something is missing that would help clarify or encapsulate Derrida a little better (even if he is deliberately being elusive and "undecidable" in his own right).You get the sense that you have had a good mixed salad of Derrida's thinking, but no real sense that you have an accurate representation of everything at the salad bar.

a good starting point; leavesyou wanting to read more
Introducing Derrida presents the attempts by Derrida to undermine what he viewed as the foundations of Western Philosophy, namely the system of binary oppositions and metaphysics. The system of binary oppositions results in everything in western philosophy boiling down to one of two opposites. For example there is only good or evil. There is only alive or dead. There is only love or hate. In his effort to undermine this system, Derrida introduces "undecidables" which are aspects of the world that do not fit into the system of binary oppositions. For example, the frame of a painting is neither a part of the painting nor a part of the exterior of the painting so it is an undecidable. Metaphysics is the study of what lies beyond the empirically knowable world. Derrida spent his life attempting to derail both. In the process of doing so he introduces "deconstructionism". This is where the book falls down for me. After reading through this section many times I still do not understand deconstructionism very well. I think the authors' approach of representing Derrida's work at a very high level works against them here. I would have liked a more detailed explanation of deconstructionism. I recommend this book with the caveat that you may find yourself needing to read more afterward. In a way though, the purpose of Totem books is to make you interested in doing just that!

Undecidability
Derrida is quite an unsettling thinker. It would seem the easiest to characterize him as a philosopher, a literary criticist or, even perhaps an artist. He wants you to be unable to decide pretty much about all the certainties you have. Language is uncertain; art is uncertain.This is accomplished through a series of movements in thought, a serious disturbance of your premises. He manages to do this superbly.He has studied philosophers, painters and writers to further inquire about their premises and, by making them explicit, he has been able to break them.

He will ask you to identify two constant directives in his work:

1) He wants to render certainties and premises weak, no longer absolute.
2) He goes about this like a virus, in the sense that a virus is neither a proper living organism nor a completely dead one. He wants to be pervasive and fatal, and be able to cross boundaries constantly.

He proposed something called deconstruction which can be used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, a concept, a tool, a method, a mode of inquiry; but he would be the first to tell you that it is not exclusively one of those but, perhaps, all of them. It really depends. What do you accomplish with it? To nullify boundaries by making them explicit, to extend semantical domains by inhibiting its predefined -comfortable- ontologies.

I had to read it twice, because the first time I was uncertain if I had achieved full control and understanding of the notions. Read it carefully; it is a great starting point into his rather more complex works. The editors have made an excellent job in keeping consistency and congruence between the graphics in each page and the concepts therein mentioned; they were not gratuituous and they were not simplistic. In the specific case of Derrida, often times a helpful, concrete analogy is needed, even if only a graphic one.

As a previous reviewer mentioned, you will derive the greatest benefit from his ideas by getting acquainted first with Phenomenology and Structuralism and, to some extent, with schools of thought previous to these ones, as he constantly makes reference to them in his works.

Overall, an efficient and simple introduction to a fascinating topic.

A good glimpse at Derrida
There seems to be two kinds of people who read these books: those who see the word "INTRODUCING" in the title, and those who don't.The latter group seems to think that the books in this series are titled "THE COMPLETE, UNABRIDGED WORKS OF (insert philosopher's name)".They miss the point that these books are meant to give average readers a brief glimpse of the subject matter.The reader can then go on to read the ACTUAL writings of the philosophers.I think these books (and DERRIDA in particular) are really great, because they are getting more people interested in philosophy.That said, I found that I got more out of this book after familiarizing myself with other philosophers, since Derrida is a post-modern philosopher, reffering to work done before him.So if you are considering this as your first book in the series, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with Western philosophy over the past 200 years (Kant, German Idealism, Existentialism, Structuralism) and you'll take much more away from Derrida's work.

weak
This rather impoverished account spends insufficient
time with each topic to provide traction
for the reader.Apart from the first section the
whole thing was a big disappointment. ... Read more

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Summery
Summary



This book explores the thought of Jacques Derrida as it relates to the tradition of apophatic thought--negative theology and philosophy--in both Western and Eastern traditions. Following the Introduction by Toby Foshay, two of Derrida's essays on negative theology, Of an Apocalyptic Tone Newly Adopted in Philosophy and How to Avoid Speaking: Denials, are reprinted here. These are followed by essays from a Western perspective by Mark C. Taylor and Michel Despland, and essays from an Eastern perspective by David Loy, a Buddhist, and Harold Coward, a Hindu. In the Conclusion, Jacques Derrida responds to these discussions.

"So we could say that, rather than measuring deconstruction as a negative theology, we are attempting to gauge the degree to which the modern in its negativity is prefigured by the classical tradition in its own characteristic search for autonomy, to better appreciate the genealogy and disjunction of our era." -- from the Introduction

Harold Coward is Director of the Calgary Institute for the Humanities at the University of Calgary. He is author of Derrida and Indian Philosophy and Jung and Eastern Thought; editor of Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism; and co-author of Hindu Ethics: Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia, all published by SUNY Press. Toby Foshay is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Victoria.





Table Of Contents

Acknowledgments

Contributors

1. Introduction: Denegation and Resentment
Toby Foshay

2. Of an Apocalyptic Tone Newly Adopted in Philosophy
Jacques Derrida

3. How to Avoid Speaking: Denials
Jacques Derrida

4. On Not Solving Riddles Alone
Michel Despland

5. nO nOt nO
Mark C. Taylor

6. A Hindu Response to Derrida's View of Negative Theology
Harold Coward

7. The Deconstruction of Buddhism
David Loy

8. Conclusion: Divine Reservations
Morny Joy

9. Post-Scriptum: Aporias, Ways and Voices
Jacques Derrida

Index



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Cenders of Derrida, Jacques
I need of this boock quickly in english, J want only for a small citation. Thank you very much for your help. Omer Corlaix ... Read more

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This text questions whether deconstruction's devotees, whose traffic in the terms of "difference" signals privileged access to the most radically chic of intellectual circles, really know their Derrida. A deconstruction of the criticism that goes by deconstruction's name, this book reveals the true philosophical nature of Derrida's thought, its debt to the tradition it engages, and its misuse by some of his most fervent admirers. Gasche's "Inventions of Difference" dispels the current myth of Derrida's singularity and sets in its place a finely informed sense of the philosopher's genuine accomplishment. Derrida's recent turn from philosophical concerns to matters literary, historical and political has misled many of his self-styled followers, Gasche contends. Though less overtly philosophical, Derrida's later writings can be properly understood only in relation to a certain philosophical tradition, which this text cogently traces. Gasche shows that terms like "difference" and "other" are devoid of meaning outside the context of identity, a context that draws not only on Husserl's phenomenology and Heidegger's writings but also on the work of Hegel.By setting forth this affinity with Hegel, Gasche clarifies the philosophical weight and direction of Derrida's recent work and the philosophical engagement of his larger project. His book puts a stop to the loose talk of deconstruction and points to the real rigours and pleasures of knowing Derrida. ... Read more

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Invited to answer questions about his relationship to Judaism, Jacques Derrida spoke through Franz Kafka: "As for myself, I could imagine another Abraham."From the experience of a summons that surprises us and prompts the query "Who, me?" Derrida explores the movement between growing up Jewish, "becoming Jewish," and "Jewish being" or existence. His essay "The Other Abraham" appears here in English for the first time. We no longer confront "Judaism" but "judeity," multiple Judaisms and Jewishnesses, manifold ways of being and writing as a Jew--in Derrida's case, as a French-speaking Algerian deprived of, then restored to French nationality in the 1940s. What is it to be a Jew and a philosopher? How has the notion of "Jewish identity" been written into and across Jewish literature, Jewish thought, and Jewish languages? Here distinguished scholars address these questions, contrasting Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem, and tracing confluences between deconstruction and Kabbalah. Derrida's relationship to the universalist aspirations in contemporary theology is also discussed, and his late autobiographical writings are evaluated. This multifaceted volume aims to open the question of Jewishness, above all, to hold it open as a question, though not one of practical or theoretical identity. As much a contestation of identity as a profound reflection on what it means today to seek, elude, and finally to wrestle with the significance of "being-jew," Judeities invites us to revisit the human condition in the twenty-first century. ... Read more

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A tribute to one of the fathers of deconstruction as well as an extended essay on memory, death, and friendship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Setting the record straight
This volume of essays is beautiful and haunting, as well as haunted: nowhere does Derrida simply or unthoughtfully dismiss De Man's past, nor does he shrink from admitting the almost unassimilable fact of this history.Rather, he uses it--as well as De Man's death itself--to think through problems both interpretive and ethical.Those interested in the truth behind De Man's past would do well--as, I suspect, another reviewer here has not--to carefully research that past, like Derrida and other scholars have.De Man's wartime writings are undeniably deplorable, but one must also--as Derrida does--read them carefully and, perhaps, with reference to a whole lifetime of later work. (De Man was very young at the time of the earliest writings, and in the position of making an ethical choice which proved extraordinarily difficult to tens of thousands of other French men and women of the period, the vast majority of whom responded, it must be admitted, little better than De Man.) Most important, the interested reader is encouraged to discover what "deconstructionism" (a practice, not a school) is and what it is not: one thing it decidedly is not, however, is "an intellectually disreputable philosophy which claimed that works of art may be freely interpreted by observers without consideration for the creator's intentions."The reviewer here seems to be thinking of New Criticism (a theoretical and methodological school much earlier than--and vastly different from--deconstructionism, led by folks like the famous duo Wimsatt and Warren, as well as Cleanth Brooks, I.A. Richards, John Crowe Ransom, and others.) It was the New Critics who proclaimed against the "intentional fallacy" (the belief that criticism ought to attempt to ferret out the author's true, final "intention" in the work); a fairly conservative product of a conservative era (the 1940s and 50s), New Criticism was hardly a bastion of cultural relativism. Deconstruction, on the other hand, suggests that texts--like language--often exceed and undo the intentions of the author; they manifest unavoidable contradictions and crossed committments, and this undecidability renders a simple, singular reading impossible. As an exemplary model of this practice, turned toward questions of ethics, commitment, and friendship, this is a lovely and important volume.

Mourning and Melancholia
Although Derrida utilizes the death of a friend to illustrate reflections on other thinkers, the text primarily illustrates the double bind we find ourselves in when those close to us die, as illustrated in Freud's"Mourning and Melancholia" as well as in Holderin. We findourselves making an impossible decision. We may repair our memories inwardlike a "tomb", a "bad object" incorporation resultingin an inward flow of libidinal cathexes, leading to a dead, incorporatedotherness and a narcissistic and deadened state, or retrieve our libidinalinvestitures from our deceased friend, resulting in a sense of betrayal. Atimeless human dilemna illustrated beautifully here. I suppose a thirdchoice is a healthy dose of therapy. Maybe M. Derrida should have called onhis buddy M. Lacan when he had the chance, like M. Althusser? At any rate,I can't comment on De Man's political activities prior to his Yaleappointment because I don't know. I suppose I'm just an irresponsibleintellectual. Nonetheless, "Memoires" isworthwhile for thoseinitiated in continental thought and some of the nuances of presentation.

Banal defense of an anti-semitism
Paul De Man spent his early years in Europe as a confirmed Anti-Semitic fascist.When the Nazis invaded his homeland, he actively collaborated in creating and disseminating virulent polemics against Jews.After the warDe Man fled to America.He was hired to teach at Yale (great backgroundcheck, guys) while desperately attempting to conceal his wartimeactivities.De Man became famous at Yale for founding the School ofDeconstructionism, an intellectually disreputable philosophy which claimedthat works of art may be freely interpreted by observers withoutconsideration for the creator's intentions.In other words, Hitler's "MeinKampf" might have one meaning to a Bantu and another meaning to a Swedewithout concern for Hitler's intentions.This type of moral equivocationappealed to members of the politically correct sect, which faithfullyregurgitated De Man's shallow assertions.Early in his Yale career DeMan's European escapades became known to the senior staff and faculty atYale.When confronted by his accusers, De Man lied.Yale never publicizedDe Man's record of violent bigotry (great moral courage, guys), allowing DeMan to proselytize his message of moral relativism for decades withoutpublic recognition of the Great Scholar's character or moral fitness.

In the person of Paul De Man the politically correct are forced toconfront the true nature of their inhuman philosophy.Thomas Jeffersonpreached freedom and liberalism while owning slaves, in directcontradiction of his philosophy, becoming a hypocrite.De Man preachedgenocide against helpless minorities, lied after the fact, and neverapologized for his actions.In doing so he conformed perfectly to themoral relativism of political correctness.Deconstructionism became theintellectual shield behind which hides the totalitarian urge. ... Read more

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A tribute to one of the fathers of deconstruction as well as an extended essay on memory, death, and friendship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Setting the record straight
This volume of essays is beautiful and haunting, as well as haunted: nowhere does Derrida simply or unthoughtfully dismiss De Man's past, nor does he shrink from admitting the almost unassimilable fact of this history.Rather, he uses it--as well as De Man's death itself--to think through problems both interpretive and ethical.Those interested in the truth behind De Man's past would do well--as, I suspect, another reviewer here has not--to carefully research that past, like Derrida and other scholars have.De Man's wartime writings are undeniably deplorable, but one must also--as Derrida does--read them carefully and, perhaps, with reference to a whole lifetime of later work. (De Man was very young at the time of the earliest writings, and in the position of making an ethical choice which proved extraordinarily difficult to tens of thousands of other French men and women of the period, the vast majority of whom responded, it must be admitted, little better than De Man.) Most important, the interested reader is encouraged to discover what "deconstructionism" (a practice, not a school) is and what it is not: one thing it decidedly is not, however, is "an intellectually disreputable philosophy which claimed that works of art may be freely interpreted by observers without consideration for the creator's intentions."The reviewer here seems to be thinking of New Criticism (a theoretical and methodological school much earlier than--and vastly different from--deconstructionism, led by folks like the famous duo Wimsatt and Warren, as well as Cleanth Brooks, I.A. Richards, John Crowe Ransom, and others.) It was the New Critics who proclaimed against the "intentional fallacy" (the belief that criticism ought to attempt to ferret out the author's true, final "intention" in the work); a fairly conservative product of a conservative era (the 1940s and 50s), New Criticism was hardly a bastion of cultural relativism. Deconstruction, on the other hand, suggests that texts--like language--often exceed and undo the intentions of the author; they manifest unavoidable contradictions and crossed committments, and this undecidability renders a simple, singular reading impossible. As an exemplary model of this practice, turned toward questions of ethics, commitment, and friendship, this is a lovely and important volume.

Mourning and Melancholia
Although Derrida utilizes the death of a friend to illustrate reflections on other thinkers, the text primarily illustrates the double bind we find ourselves in when those close to us die, as illustrated in Freud's"Mourning and Melancholia" as well as in Holderin. We findourselves making an impossible decision. We may repair our memories inwardlike a "tomb", a "bad object" incorporation resultingin an inward flow of libidinal cathexes, leading to a dead, incorporatedotherness and a narcissistic and deadened state, or retrieve our libidinalinvestitures from our deceased friend, resulting in a sense of betrayal. Atimeless human dilemna illustrated beautifully here. I suppose a thirdchoice is a healthy dose of therapy. Maybe M. Derrida should have called onhis buddy M. Lacan when he had the chance, like M. Althusser? At any rate,I can't comment on De Man's political activities prior to his Yaleappointment because I don't know. I suppose I'm just an irresponsibleintellectual. Nonetheless, "Memoires" isworthwhile for thoseinitiated in continental thought and some of the nuances of presentation.

Banal defense of an anti-semitism
Paul De Man spent his early years in Europe as a confirmed Anti-Semitic fascist.When the Nazis invaded his homeland, he actively collaborated in creating and disseminating virulent polemics against Jews.After the warDe Man fled to America.He was hired to teach at Yale (great backgroundcheck, guys) while desperately attempting to conceal his wartimeactivities.De Man became famous at Yale for founding the School ofDeconstructionism, an intellectually disreputable philosophy which claimedthat works of art may be freely interpreted by observers withoutconsideration for the creator's intentions.In other words, Hitler's "MeinKampf" might have one meaning to a Bantu and another meaning to a Swedewithout concern for Hitler's intentions.This type of moral equivocationappealed to members of the politically correct sect, which faithfullyregurgitated De Man's shallow assertions.Early in his Yale career DeMan's European escapades became known to the senior staff and faculty atYale.When confronted by his accusers, De Man lied.Yale never publicizedDe Man's record of violent bigotry (great moral courage, guys), allowing DeMan to proselytize his message of moral relativism for decades withoutpublic recognition of the Great Scholar's character or moral fitness.

In the person of Paul De Man the politically correct are forced toconfront the true nature of their inhuman philosophy.Thomas Jeffersonpreached freedom and liberalism while owning slaves, in directcontradiction of his philosophy, becoming a hypocrite.De Man preachedgenocide against helpless minorities, lied after the fact, and neverapologized for his actions.In doing so he conformed perfectly to themoral relativism of political correctness.Deconstructionism became theintellectual shield behind which hides the totalitarian urge. ... Read more

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Acts of Literature, compiled in close association with Jacques Derrida, brings together for the first time a number of Derrida's writings on literary texts. The essays discuss literary figures such as Rousseau, Mallarm&#233, Joyce, Shakespeare, and Kafka, and comprise pieces spanning Derrida's career. The collection now includes a substantial interview with him on questions of literature, deconstruction, politics, feminism and history, and Derek Attridge provides an introductory essay on deconstruction and the question of literature, with suggestions for further reading. These essays examine the place and operation of literature in Western culture, and are highly original responses to individual literary texts. They highlight Derrida's interest in literature as a significant cultural institution and as a peculiarly challenging form of writing, with inescapable consequences for our thinking about philosophy, politics and ethics. ... Read more

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A challenge to read
I'm used to reading philosophy, but I might be too dark and dour to comment on this kind of book.Given an ambiguous situation, I have major problems seeing how it might have anything to do with me.Even if comedy was an art form, I might not be funny, or even meaningful, or in any way like this book.Considering the impossible situations that I have imagined myself in, as in: If Nam was a joke, I was the straight man; this book seems to be another instance in which the main routine is like a popular, major comedy, which you don't see me laughing at. How could I be sure that there is something here as funny as a video of the routine, "Who's on first?"I still only see the questions, and the fact that Who's wife sometimes comes down and picks up his check for him doesn't make it any clearer to me.

This is not the first book by or about Jacques Derrida that I have tried to read.An interview, "This Strange Institution Called Literature" (pp. 33-75) establishes that it is possible for the editor, Derek Attridge, and J.D. to talk to each other about literature and philosophy, though few people might be aware of what J.D. means by "Anamnesis would be risky here, because I'd like to escape my own stereotypes."(p. 34).Forgetting about Nam (Nam amnesia?) might be risky for me, because I have so many things that I always consider Namlike in their stupidity to remind me, but J.D. was actually saying that recollecting his past would be risky.Anyone who thinks ought to be able to escape his prior conditions or convictions, and it's much easier if no one remembers what they are.

There are only a few mentions of Nietzsche in this book, and the index says they are on pages 9, 26n, 34, 37, 39, 81, 287, 293, 326n, but I say they are on pp. 9, 26n, 35, 37, etc. and also in the title of the essay, "Rhetoric of Persuasion (Nietzsche)" by Paul de Man, and its conclusion:"This by no means resolves the problem of the relationship between literature and philosophy in Nietzsche, but it at least establishes a somewhat more reliable point of `reference' from which to ask the question."(p. 327).

There is a chapter of this book on "Before the Law" by Kafka.In addition to thoroughly explaining everything in that short work, there are a number of suggestions, like "Under these conditions literature can play the law, repeating it while diverting or circumventing it."(p. 216).Those who are not familiar with Kafka might underestimate how much this book attempts to make the law seem less practical than Chapter 9 of THE TRIAL."This entire chapter is a prodigious scene of Talmudic exegesis, concerning `Before the Law,' between the priest and K.It would take hours to study the grain of it, its ins and outs."(p. 217).Then J.D. offers an explanation, but then starts talking about Prague and "my officially appointed lawyer told me: . . . `Don't take this too tragically, live it as a literary experience.'And when I said that I had never seen the drugs that were supposed to have been discovered in my suitcase before the customs officers themselves saw them, the prosecutor replied:`That's what all drug traffickers say.'"(p. 218).The priest is called, "a kind of Saint Paul, the Paul of the Epistle to the Romans who speaks according to the law, of the law and against the law."(p. 219).Closer to the end, "'You are the prison chaplain,' said K."(p. 220).

Chapter 10, "From Shibboleth for Paul Celan" (pp. 370-413) is dated Seattle, 1984.Much of the discussion is of the German words used in Celan's poems.My favorite first line is of the poem, IN EINS, "Dreizehnter Feber.Im Herzmund" which is translated:"In One, Thirteenth of February.In the heart's mouth"(p. 397).It appears again on page 399, with the second line, and a discussion of "Shibboleth, this word I have called Hebrew, is found, as you know, in a whole family of languages:Phoenician, Judaeo-Aramaic, Syriac.It is traversed by a multiplicity of meanings:river, stream, ear of grain, olive-twig.But beyond these meanings, it acquired the value of a password." ... Read more

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Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments represents the most comprehensive attempt to date to explore, adapt, and test Derrida's contributions and influence on the study of theology, biblical studies, and the philosophy of religion. With over twenty original essays from highly-respected scholars such as John Caputo, Daniel Boyarin, Edith Wyschogrod, Tim Beal, and Gil Anidjar, Derrida and Religion will quickly become the locus classicus for those interested in the increasingly vibrant work on religion and deconstruction and postmodernism. ... Read more

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'I am struck by the extraordinary quality of this work, particularly by the uncompromising rigor and remarkable and rich introduction. I am already learning a lot from this book' - Jacques Derrida. 'A most intelligent collection of essays. They deepen our understanding of Derrida, and remove the suspicion of mystification from his treatment of philosophic and literary issues' - Geoffrey Hartmann, Yale University. '"Displacement: Derrida and After" is an important and challenging contribution to literary studies. Its focus on displacement is welcome and allows for considerable enlightenment on this undeniably central aspect and concern of recent literary theory' - G. Douglas Atkins. 'Part of the growing body of commentary on Jacques Derrida in English, these essays exemplify the new sophistication toward deconstruction in Britain and the United States' - Michael Sprinker, "Times Literary Supplement". 'What these essays all witness to is the extraordinary energy of thought and style which Derrida's writings have unleashed among admiring and dissenting commentators alike' - Christopher Norris, "London Review of Books".Mark Krupnick, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is author of "Lionel Trilling" and "The Fate of Cultural Criticism". ... Read more

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This is an A to Z guide to the work and thought of one of the most important and influential European thinkers of the twentieth century. "The Derrida Dictionary" is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the world of Jacques Derrida, the founder of deconstruction and one of the most important and influential European thinkers of the twentieth century. Meticulously researched and extensively cross-referenced, this unique book covers all his major works, ideas and influences and provides a firm grounding in the central themes of Derrida's thought. Students will discover a wealth of useful information, analysis and criticism. A-Z entries include clear definitions of all the key terms used in Derrida's writings and detailed synopses of his key works. The Dictionary also includes entries on Derrida's major philosophical influences, such as Sartre, Foucault, Lacan and Levinas, and those he influenced and engaged with, including Heidegger and Freud. It covers everything that is essential to a sound understanding of Derrida's philosophy, offering clear and accessible explanations of often complex terminology."The Derrida Dictionary" is the ideal resource for anyone reading or studying Derrida, Deconstruction or Modern European Philosophy more generally. "The Continuum Philosophy Dictionaries" offer clear and accessible guides to the work of some of the more challenging thinkers in the history of philosophy. A-Z entries provide clear definitions of key terminology, synopses of key works, and details of each thinker's major themes, ideas and philosophical influences. The Dictionaries are the ideal resource for anyone reading or studying these key philosophers. ... Read more

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Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary philosophy, literary theory, and intellectual history.Arthur Bradley's guide proves clear, careful, and sober commentary to explicate this pathbreaking work. Suitable for readers at all levels and in all disciplines, this guide is a welcome resource for understanding this key text. ... Read more