Deconstructing the monologic systems of thought : derrida and paul de man

Abstract EN

This article aims to highlight Paul de Man and Derrida's approaches to deconstruction.

It seeks also to point to the deconstructive approach in redefining the conceptual systems associated with the philosophy of Western Metaphysics.

In this concern, it focuses on deconstruction as a device for undermining the very foundation of Western thought that presupposes a form of rationality or metaphysical certainty in terms which operate as centering principles, including being, essence, substance, truth, form, man and God, etc.; and other humanistic conceptual systems operating as binary oppositions, such as (body/soul, man/woman, light/darkness, rhetorical/fictional, and literal/metaphorical).

The paper comes to the conclusion that deconstruction aims to draw attention to the "otherness" in all systems of human thought.

In this sense, deconstruction becomes a master metaphor for the whole of human experience outside the bounds of the enclosure of Western metaphysics, as well as a strategy to lay bare the fixed standards of human thought that stand as a hurdle before the humanistic enterprise of education.