Preface: Should We Be Afraid of Jacques Derrida?

Abstract

Jacques Derrida is a thinker of resistance. By that, I mean that Derrida is a philosopher who inspires fear and consternation as well as a series of broad based conceptual and narratological points that challenge the very structure of Western theoretical discourse. This, no doubt, causes fear. In order to grasp the essential features of this ‘fear’, one must think of the Derridean effect. That is, Derrida argues that the structures of discourse in the West follow particular patterns that are repetitive in practice and dominant in orientation and scope. At the core of this effect is the idea that truth and its attendant discourses of justice and right are not easy matters. In fact, any discourse of truth is full of narrative forms and practices that are inherently rhetorical devices that challenge the simplicity of correspondence theories of truth and knowledge. It is this simple lucidity that is often resisted.