61DERRIDA, JACQUESrevealed through miracles in human his-
tory and does not play an active, sustain-
ing role in creation. Some deists believe in
the goodness of God and an individual
afterlife. Some deists historically engaged
in strenuous anti-Christian polemics
(Voltaire and Thomas Paine), whereas
others sought to make deism compatible
with Christian practice (Thomas Jefferson’s
Christianity embraced Christ’s moral
teaching but he expunged all miracle
narratives from his Bible).
DEMIURGE. Plato’s term for the divine
force that shapes the world of matter
based on the world of forms. The demi-
urge, which is featured in Plato’s Timaeus,
entered into Gnostic popular belief the idea
that the world was made by a lesser god, a
malevolent or at least sub-benevolent
force, and that salvation is to be achieved
by knowing the God beyond the god (or
demiurge) of this earthly realm.
DEMOCRITUS (460–370 BCE). The
philosopher and pupil of Leucippus (an
influential Atomist pre-Socratic) who
maintained that the material world is com-
posed of indivisible, tiny objects or atoms.
Known as the laughing philosopher, he
is traditionally thought to have no fear of
death: for at death he said, since we cease
to be, we have no reason to fear death.
DEMYTHOLOGIZE. A practice popu-
larized by Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976)
in which one seeks to find the essence
of Christianity by looking behind or
through supernatural stories of miracles
and heaven. For example, a demytholo-
gized view of Christ may deny that Christ
was the incarnation of the incorporeal
Creator God of the cosmos, but it may
take the Christian teaching of Christ’s life
as advancing a radical call for persons to
live a courageous life of compassion in
the pursuit of justice and mercy.DEONTOLOGY. Theories that moral
duties or requirements and moral prohi-
bitions are binding and not contingent on
their consequences, especially in terms of
utilitarian calculations. Cases may arise
when doing an immoral act (e.g., framing
an innocent person) that might bring
about some good or avoid suffering
(e.g., preventing a race riot). A deontolo-
gist will not condone the evil act, regard-
less of the consequences. Contrast with
CONSEQUENTIALISM.DERRIDA, JACQUES (1930–2004).
Derrida is best known for being a
French philosopher and postmodernist,
the founder of deconstruction, and the
author of Of Grammatology (1967). He
is also known for his work on “The Gift”
and became very popular during the
1970s. He was born in Algeria and stud-
ied and taught philosophy for more than
20 years at the Ecole Normale Superieure.
“The Supplement” is one of Derrida’s