What is it that makes Derrida so stimulating and fun to read? At least for his treatment of standard philosophical works (I'm reading "Plato's Pharmacy" in Disseminations), I think it's mainly that he shows that philosophy is not about what undergraduate courses in philosophy teach you it is about. Philosophy is not some kind of contemplative insight into the nature of things. Instead, it's about rhetoric, myth, religion, politics.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, October 13, 2003 at 06:21 PM
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