A French philosopher born in Algeria, creator of deconstruction, a way of reading texts that reveals tensions and contradictions hidden within them. He questioned the idea that words have fixed meanings and that there is a pure presence of truth outside language. He influenced philosophy, literature, law, and architecture.
Core ideas
The meaning of words is never fixed: it is always deferred and at play
The Western tradition privileged speech and presence, devaluing writing
Oppositions such as nature and culture hide hierarchies that can be undone
The tradition: Deconstructionist
Deconstruction is the form of reading created by Derrida: it takes apart the pairs of opposites that hold a text together to show that no meaning is fully stable or closed.
