II
Writing and Differenceand
Of Grammatology
n this chapter I devote extensive attention to two books
that Derrida published in 1967 ,Writing and Differenceand
Of Grammatology.In both works, Derrida insists on the
skeptical position he had established in his studies of
Husserl. Yet, more important, he also moves beyond the battle
between metaphysics and deconstructive skepticism. The real
story ofWriting and DifferenceandOf Grammatology,espe-
cially the former, is Derrida’s desire for a new, even revolu-
tionary, truth. This truth cannot be found through the mere
act of debunking metaphysical assertions. Derrida seeks some-
thing more, an empirically present reality: the encounter with
the face of the other in Lévinas; the traumatic origin of history
in Freud; Nietzsche’s embrace of a coming, palpably trans-
formed world. There are other kinds of empiricism that Der-
rida rejects: in Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Husserl. And his contin-
uing opposition to the psychological reduces the explanatory
force of his stance in the late sixties. But the fundamental fact