Language, Discourse and Culture: Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives includes 14 essays written over a period of seven years. The nature of their contents oscillates between the pedagogical and the critical. As their quite style migh suggest, these articles are not intended to be splashy interventions in the current intellectual scence. Nonetheless, the author's detailed knowledge of contemporary post-structural and postmodern modes of though is always in evidence. The essays seek to be effective philosophical responses to questions lingering at the interface of language and culture.
The running theme of the book is the aesthetic and ethical alterability of the discourse given to a self or to a community at any given historical moment. Our acts in the world are not subsequent to the construction of the logic or discourse that is given. Rather it is our acts of discourse that incessantly contiute our worlds, world other that what is given. Several chapters focus upon this transformative concern that pervades Derrida's deconstructive project.
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