However widely--and differently--Jacques Derrida may be viewed as a "foundational" French thinker, the most basic questions concerning his work still remain unanswered: Is Derrida a friend of reason, or philosophy, or rather the most radical of skeptics? Are language-related themes--writing, semiosis--his central concern, or does he really write about something else? And does his thought form a system of its own, or does it primarily consist of commentaries on individual texts? This book seeks to address these questions by returning to what it claims is essential history: the development of...

How are we to interpret Jacques Derrida's writings now, after so much commentary has been devoted to his thought and his own astonishing productivity has come to an end? In this groundbreaking book, Joshua Kates extends his earlier contextualizing of Derrida's work in relation to Husserl by arguing that we must begin from a frame different from that provided by Derrida himself. His work must be inserted into already existing fields, thus "fielding Derrida." By placing Derrida's texts in the context of broader fields (such as interpretations of modernity and analytic philosophy of language),...

How are we to interpret Jacques Derrida's writings now, after so much commentary has been devoted to his thought and his own astonishing productivity has come to an end? In this groundbreaking book, JoshuaKates extends his earlier contextualizing of Derrida's work in relation to Husserl by arguing that we must begin from a frame different from that provided by Derrida himself. His work must be inserted into alreadyexisting fields, thus fielding Derrida.By placing Derrida's texts in the context of broader fields (such as interpretations of modernity and analytic philosophy of language), Kates...