Introduction
uring his lifetime, Derrida elicited both intense cel-
ebration and intense scorn. Rather than judging
him in the manner of his disapproving critics, or
celebrating him like his followers, I aim to explain
his career. Now that Derrida is gone, it is time for a more mea-
sured assessment of his worth. His thought was neither as
world changing as his disciples claimed nor as dangerous (or
absurd) as his critics suspected. It does, however, offer us a
necessary lesson concerning the self-imposed limits of philos-
ophy: the way that it tries to purify itself, and the hazards of
such purity. Derrida’s work, at once frustrating, diverting, and
impressively self-sustaining even in its contradictions, con-
tains a crucial message about what philosophy wants to exclude
from its view—and what it finds itself forced to reckon with.
Derrida’s work consisted of two interlocking parts: an ar-
gument about metaphysics and an argument about the self.
First, Derrida redefined metaphysics (the search for an essence
behind or above sensible appearances) as a wish for utter clar-
ity: its aim was to make meaning fully available to conscious-
ness. The conscious mind had to be the master of thought. In
order to combat this metaphysical project (called, in Derrida’s