In 1746 the French philosophe Condillac published his Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge, one of many attempts during the century to determine how we organize and validate ideas as knowledge. In investigating language, especially written language, he found not only the seriousness he sought but also a great deal of frivolity whose relation to the sober business of philosophy had to be addressed somehow. If the mind truly reflects the world, and language reflects the mind, why is there so much error and nonsense? Whence the distortions? How can they be remedied? In The Archeology of the Frivolous, Jacques Derrida recoups Condillac's enterprise, showing how it anticipated--consciously or not--many of the issues that have since stymied epistemology and linguistic philosophy. If anyone doubts that deconstruction can be a powerful analytic method, try this.
- ISBN10 0803216785
- ISBN13 9780803216785
- Publish Date 1 November 1987 (first published 1 August 1987)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Publisher University of Nebraska Press
- Imprint Bison Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 143
- Language English