TAN, WINNIE MARIE F.

OCTOBER 24, 2017

11544465 POSMODE A51

Analytic Response on Jacques Derridas The End of the Book and the Beginning of Writing

In analyzing this text by Derrida, I would like to focus on his Theory of Deconstruction and how
he addresses inequality through it. I was appalled by how he thought that language itself is a main
contributor to the oppression or inequality in society or in the world in general. I have constantly
thought that the actions and the culture of the people are what it makes a society of inequality, but
he went beyond those actions and started to point out that it is also through the words the one uses
that inequality thrives. Deconstruction or Derridas poststructuralist philosophy assumes two
things, first is that all concepts come in the form of binaries that are opposed to one another.
Second, identity or meaning of the words could not be understood except in relation to what they
are not, that one cannot understand or know what it is if one does not know what is not. One cannot
understand what a tree is unless one points out what a tree is not. Derrida points out that
deconstruction reverses and next is to realize the power struggle between the superior and the
inferior and being able to equalize this and that the goal is leave behind the dualistic thinking which
later, the idea or concept transcends into something greater and new. This makes the idea, word or
concept being something undecidable because the two poles have been merged and unclassified
as well. His philosophy has been used by feminists and for rights and equality advocates to actually
solve such issues.

Furthermore, Derridas Theory of Deconstruction is a strategy or a technique to destabilize

something, a text or concept mainly that are sometimes way too idealistic. This philosophy, I
believe is an answer to medieval philosophy where people would just be in the convenience of
believing into something because the divine said so or they would always incorporate something
with the Supreme Being. Derrida goes away with that kind of thinking. He says that in order to
fully grasp the meaning of the text is to evaluate it and to refer it to the subjects understanding of
it. This means that the truth becomes subjective. The truth now depends on who is the one who
would evaluate the text. What is true for me is already the truth and what may be true for others
are not necessarily true for one. Obviously, differences would be rampant, but it would not matter
at all. Deconstruction is not just a mere theory to replace other theories but to challenge belief
systems and shift the way of thinking of the people that was not practiced in the medieval and
modern way of thinking. He argues that the notion of the structure wherein rules are followed in
order to arrive into something certain. Derrida disagrees very much in the notion of the traditional
following certain ideologies or theories to arrive at something. language bears within itself the
necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably
undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licenses the reader to produce his
own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p.
108).

I do agree and like how Derrida used the theory of Deconstruction to emphasize ones individuality
and uniqueness. However, I have some reservations when it comes to how he considers the truth
as subjective as it is may be problematic in other situations most especially. That there would be
no objectivity to handle such conflicts and settles might be hard to attain. Overall, his philosophy
is something that one should note about since I believe that it is something the gives self-respect
to the ideas one have.