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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Franse filosoof Jacques Derrida overleden



vlegeltje
09-10-04, 20:26
PARIJS - De Franse filosoof Jacques Derrida, de vader van het deconstructieve denken, is op 74-jarige leeftijd overleden. Hij leed al enige tijd aan kanker. Derrida gold als een van de meest gelezen en vertaalde filosofen van Frankrijk.
http://www.standaard.be/assets/images_upload/nb0910derrida.jpg

Op het nos journaal werd zijn theorie van het deconstructivisme kernachtig verwoord:
Een tekst heeft geen vaste betekenis. Iedereen kan erin lezen wat ie wil.

Siah
09-10-04, 21:31
Geplaatst door vlegeltje

Een tekst heeft geen vaste betekenis. Iedereen kan erin lezen wat ie wil.

dit is natuurlijk erg goedkoop

Siah
09-10-04, 22:10
‘Deconstruction is a political weapon’
Will Shaw

The world’s most renowned philosopher, Jaques Derrida, spoke to a packed Central Hall last month on the French Resistance, Palestine and the threats of Globalisation. Will Shaw reports.

BORN IN colonial Algeria, where a young Le Pen was allegedly to work as a torturer, Derrida was later expelled from school for being a Jew.

His most famous text focuses on linguistics, though his life and work have, to an extent, always been inseparable from political tensions and resistance movements.

Speaking at York, where he deftly skipped between issues ranging from the French Resistance to the conflict in Palestine, his discourse “criticising the dominant culture” frequently sounded like an anarchist’s call to arms.

The world's most famous living philosopher cut an unimposing figure, dwarfed by the vast size of Central Hall.

Derrida’s personality soon compensated for his lack of physical presence — perhaps in response to an extravagant five minute introduction by Derek Atridge, worthy of the Order of the Brown Nose.

Derrida's work is notoriously heavyweight, and there was always the possibility that the author of the snappily titled Statements and Truisms about Neologisms, Newisms, Postisms, Parasitisms and other small Seisisms would leave any audience member without a Phd baffled.

“I am struck by the monotony that I am always saying the same thing”, he admitted, but he transpired to be comprehensive and accessible. It was a kind of ‘pop philosophy’.

He proved to be starkly witty, and on receiving admiring laughter early on, remarked: “that was my first joke for today. Others will follow.”

Derrida's work is highly politicised, now perhaps more than ever, with his influences coming heavily from the left.

He remarked, “I was not a Marxist. I have never been a Marxist. But I thought it was my duty to go back to Marx”.

Summing-up his academic career, he said: “I did my best to oppose racism, apartheid and restrictions on immigration. Deconstructionism is a political weapon against racism.”

Derrida’s interest and sympathy for the plight of the racial ‘other’ has a strong connection with his own experiences in France.

He attacked his homeland for its “anti-Semitism and racism” which, he argued, has infiltrated the highest levels of state.

“I was a militant against the politics of the French government,” he said.

Yet despite his troubles, Derrida proclaimed: “I am neurotically French. I wouldn't live anywhere else.”

His experiences as a Jew under German occupation heavily influence his discourse on world politics today.

He satirised the way in which the philosophy canon is dominated by Germans , adding laconically “I was occupied by German people, and I resisted”. France and England continue to operate the same ruthless and inhumane policies towards refugees that they pursued during the Second World War, he claimed.
Mentioning the Sangatte asylum centre, Derrida strongly criticised the two countries for struggling to get rid of people fleeing “concentration camps” in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Globalisation only brings gain to a tiny minority"

Opposition to oppressive and inhumane regimes has been a regular feature of Derrida's work, and he confessed: “my dreams began with visions of the French Resistance”.

Mentioning September 11th and discreetly alluding to the present conflict in Israel and Palestine, he deconstructed and undermined contemporary attitudes towards terrorism. “The French Resistance were considered terrorists, not the Germans. The word ‘terrorist’ is very equivocal”.

“I don't have anything against Western culture” he alleged, but is extremely sceptical about the role of West on the international scene, in particular with regards to the internet.

“We have to participate in new technologies”, he admitted, but expressed a general mistrust of any international progress the web might bring.

“Only five percent of the world have access to the net. So when they speak of globalisation, there is no globalisation. The majority of the five percent is in the US.”

So ‘globalisation’ does not bring an improved standard of living for all, Derrida argued.

Instead, it thrusts Ameri-can language and culture upon the world, breaking down international diversity, and bringing economic gain only to a tiny minority.

He spoke of the “irresistible hegemony of your language”, and the perils implicit in the Americanisation of our culture.

“I oppose this hegemony”, he said.

At the ripe age of 72, Derrida's cultural crusade continues.