Derrided

[andrewducker]

Cheers to brandnewgun for pointing me in the direction of this piece, where various people were asked to explain Jacques Derrida.

Some of the people are very dismissive, but thankfully there are also a few who actually seem to understand what he was saying.

It does annoy me terribly, however, when people revel in ignorance.

I didn't know much about him. He was French, which to me says it all. Leave well alone!

I find it fairly loathsome when people are proud of being ignorant of computers, but this is just ridiculous.

Comments

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

I do like

Denis MacShane, minister for Europe
The core of Derrida's thinking is that every text contains multiple meanings. To read is neither to know nor to understand, but to begin a process of exploration that is essential to comprehend oneself and society. This is, however, the sort of pretentious bullshit language a minister for Europe can only use when speaking French.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Julian Baggini's British-trained philosophers like myself don't know much about Derrida, though that doesn't stop some of them dismissing him. captured exactly what a lot in that list were saying I thought.

People are not so-much proud of their ignorance of computers as of believing the details of them are below them, like how electricity works. The latter's for electricians to deal with - meaning it's tradesmen's work. Same with computers.

[themongkey.livejournal.com]

That quote was from Julie Burchill, which to me says it all. Leave well alone!

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

All I know about Derrida is:

1. He was a professor at the University of California at Irvine while I was there, but he was never seen by undergrads, only occasionally attending graduate seminars.

2. He is French.

3. I found myself almost entirely unable to understand his writing when I attempted it, but then I've never been much of a fan of modern-day philosophers who aren't Buddhists.

I certainly wouldn't say that I'm proud to be ignorant of Derrida's work. Instead, I would say that I found it extremely opaque and had other things I was more interested in reading.

Does that count as loathsome?

[andrewducker]

Nope - you aren't proud of your ignorance.

Derrida actually had a fair bit in common with the buddhist approach - believing that language could be a trap that people got tangled up in.