Derrida’s methodology

In this paper, I will be discussing Derrida’s reworking of metaphysics as history. Derrida describes history as the history of the metaphysical concept, where ontology delineated a strict division of the signified and the signifier, whereby the signified designated full presence to the signifier, which brings about a certain logocentrism. What this paper has done is show through Derrida that the signified is nothing outside the signifier and that it has to be relayed through time, history, and differance. This is a democratic move as it opens up possibilities for reading. By suggesting that meaning is not ossified and is not to be located outside the text but within the text, Derrida democratizes reading by suggesting that reading is an act of invention and that the possibilities for different readings are endless, where representation would hold you to an objective truth. This paper has shown that this history of the metaphysical concept as we know it, with transcendental and empirical strictly delineated and divided, has come to an end as there never has been anything but writing, meaning is located within the text rather than without, and the reader actively invents his reading instead of simply discovering an objective transcendental signified.