Voting Station

Jacques Derrida

Please vote to return to collections.

Philosopher

The Resume

    (July 15, 1930-October 8, 2004)
    Died at 74
    Wrote 'Of Grammatology,' 'Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy,' 'The Gift of Death,' 'The Work of Mourning,' 'Acts of Religion,' 'On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (Thinking in Action),' 'Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International,' 'Limited Inc.,' 'Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins,' 'Margins of Philosophy' and 'The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond'

Why he might be annoying:

    He is one of the pioneers of the post modernist movement.
    He developed the idea of deconstructionism, the idea that there is no 'one right way' to read a text.
    When asked what he would like to hear the philosophers that he has admired talk about, he responded by saying 'Their sexual lives, because it's the thing they don't talk about,' but when he was then asked to talk about his, he flatly refused.
    He smokes a pipe.
    Some analytic philosophers consider him a fraud.

Why he might not be annoying:

    When he was ten, he was kicked out of school for being Jewish.
    English professors love him.
    There is a 2002 documentary about his life.
    He considers himself a feminist.
    He's become a pop culture icon of sorts.
    In an interview in 'L. A. Weekly,' he said, 'When I was twenty, I felt old and wise, but now I feel like a child. There's an element of melancholy to this, because although I feel young in my heart, I know objectively that I'm not young. The second age I carry is my real age of 72, and every day I'm confronted with signs that remind me of it. The third age I carry -- and this is something I only feel in France -- is the age I was when I began to publish, which was 35. It's as if I stopped at 35 in the cultural world where I work. Of course that's not true, because in many circles I'm considered an old, well-known professor who's published a lot. Nonetheless, I feel as though I'm a young writer who just started publishing, and people are saying, 'Well, he's promising.''

Credit: Nihilism Cynicism Sarcasm Orgasm


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 333 Votes: 52.85% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 77 Votes: 53.25% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 84 Votes: 80.95% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 40 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 23 Votes: 60.87% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 58 Votes: 74.14% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 71 Votes: 66.20% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 114 Votes: 68.42% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 173 Votes: 58.38% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 284 Votes: 58.80% Annoying
    In 2003, Out of 488 Votes: 64.75% Annoying
    In 2002, Out of 78 Votes: 76.92% Annoying