Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida was a French-Algerian philosopher who developed deconstruction — a mode of reading that exposes the internal contradictions and unstated assumptions of texts and conceptual systems. Beginning with his simultaneous publication in 1967 of Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, and Speech and Phenomena, Derrida systematically questioned the privileging of speech over writing, presence over absence, and identity over difference in the Western philosophical tradition. His influence across literary theory, architecture, legal theory, and the humanities has been profound and contentious.