Because of my frustration with identity politics, I moved away from Derrida to more analytic philosophy my senior year in college. I didn't think he gave a strong enough account of human agency, and was skeptical about "identity" as an essential category, preferring accounts of language and, alternately, economic models. Later, in graduate school, a philosophy professor put Derrida in the context of Plato, Nietzsche, Freud and the French colonial wars. My eyes opened to how Derrida contributed to our thinking about human culture, action, and thought.
Mark Taylor writes a piece about Derrida.
"Like Kant, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, Mr. Derrida does argue that transparent truth and absolute values elude our grasp. This does not mean, however, that we must forsake the cognitive categories and moral principles without which we cannot live: equality and justice, generosity and friendship....
"He [Derrida] understood that religion is impossible without uncertainty.... God can never be fully known or adequately represented by imperfect human beings.
And yet, we live in an age when major conflicts are shaped by people who claim to know, for certain, that God is on their side. Mr. Derrida reminded us that religion does not always give clear meaning, purpose and certainty by providing secure foundations. To the contrary, the great religious traditions are profoundly disturbing because they all call certainty and security into question. Belief not tempered by doubt poses a mortal danger. "
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