Jacques Derrida · Philosophy
Why has philosophy, from Plato onward, treated <em>writing</em> as a dangerous, second-rate copy of living <em>speech</em>? Derrida shows that this ancient prejudice - phonocentrism - is the master case of the metaphysics of presence, and that when philosophers attack writing they always end up relying on it.
You learned that Derrida calls philosophy’s bias toward speech over writing phonocentrism : the spoken word seems closest to a meaning fully present in the speaker’s mind, while writing seems a lifeless, absent copy. Derrida reverses this - arguing that the features philosophers fear in writing (absence, t…
Leads to Plato.
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