Jacques Derrida was the best-known French philosopher of the 80s and 90s, yet many find it difficult to grasp his ideas. He asked complex philosophical questions about texts and textuality. He invented deconstructionism, which emphasizes the necessary incompleteness of texts. That is to say, “Deconstruction is used to show that a work does not adequately address something.” (Faulconer, Deconstruction, p.4) Derrida argued that there are many possible interpretations of any given text, and readers can play with texts as if playing with toys. According to Derrida, “what we get when we read a text is not an objective account of logos or even what the author really meant, but our present interpretation or understanding of the text itself. This understanding becomes so to speak, our own [text] of the text.” (quoted by Ozmone & Craver in the Philosophical Foundations of Education, p368.) So Derrida disputed the idea that the meaning of a text does not change. Moreover, he challenged the author’s intentions, and shows that there may be numerous reasonable interpretations of a text. I agree with Derrida about these things. This is where the idea of ‘the author is dead’ arises: once the text is written, the author’s input loses its significance.
- Philosophynow.org
