Editing Deconstruction (section)

{{Short description|Approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

In philosophy, '''deconstruction''' is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understanding the relationship between [[Text (literary theory)|text]] and [[Meaning (linguistics)|meaning]]. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher [[Jacques Derrida]], who described it as a turn away from [[Platonism]]'s ideas of "true" [[Platonic forms|forms]] and [[essence]]s which are valued above appearances.{{additional citation needed|date=December 2022}}<ref>{{Citation|last=Lawlor|first=Leonard|title=Jacques Derrida|date=2019|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/derrida/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Fall 2019|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2020-04-11}}</ref> <!-- Deconstruction involves embracing the complexity and volatility in the function of language, with an emphasis on the mere appearance of language in both speech and writing, and considering the possibility that "essence" is to be found in that appearance, rather than empirically and objectively evaluated.

Deconstruction argues that language, especially in idealist concepts such as truth and justice, is irreducibly complex, unstable and difficult to determine, making fluid and comprehensive ideas of language more adequate in deconstructive criticism. -->

Since the 1980s, these proposals of language's fluidity instead of being ideally static and discernible have inspired a range of studies in the [[humanities]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Deconstruction|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/155306/deconstruction|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=8 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> including the disciplines of [[law]],<ref name="Allison">{{cite book|last1=Allison|first1=David B.|last2=Garver|first2=Newton|author-link2=Newton Garver |title=Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs|date=1973|publisher=Northwestern University Press|location=Evanston|isbn=978-0810103979|edition=5th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2qdBeWFUmJQC&pg=PA3|access-date=8 September 2017|quote=A decision that did not go through the ordeal of the undecidable would not be a free decision, it would only be the programmable application or unfolding of a calculable process...[which] deconstructs from the inside every assurance of presence, and thus every criteriology that would assure us of the justice of the decision.}}</ref>{{rp|3–76}}<ref name="Bridge">{{cite web|title=Critical Legal Studies Movement|url=http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/bridge/CriticalTheory/critical2.htm|website=The Bridge|access-date=8 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=German Law Journal - Past Special Issues|url=http://www.germanlawjournal.com/index.php?pageID=13&vol=6&no=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516144840/http://www.germanlawjournal.com/index.php?pageID=13&vol=6&no=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 May 2013|access-date=8 September 2017|date=16 May 2013}}</ref> [[anthropology]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morris|first1=Rosalind C.|title=Legacies of Derrida: Anthropology|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|date=September 2007|volume=36|issue=1|pages=355–389|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094357}}</ref> [[historiography]],<ref name="Munslow">{{cite web|last1=Munslow|first1=Alan|title=Deconstructing History|url=http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4397/1/Deconstructing_History_by_Alun_Munslow___Institute_of_Historical_Research.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916090324/http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4397/1/Deconstructing_History_by_Alun_Munslow___Institute_of_Historical_Research.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-16 |url-status=live|publisher=Institute of Historical Research|access-date=8 September 2017|date=1997}}</ref> [[linguistics]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Busch|first1=Brigitta|title=The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited|issue=5|journal=Applied Linguistics|volume=33|pages=503–523|doi=10.1093/applin/ams056|date=1 December 2012}}</ref> [[sociolinguistics]],<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Esch|editor1-first=Edith|editor2-last=Solly|editor2-first=Martin|title=The Sociolinguistics of Language Education in International Contexts|date=2012|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Bern|isbn=9783034310093|pages=31–46}}</ref> [[psychoanalysis]], [[LGBT studies]], and [[feminism]]. Deconstruction also inspired [[deconstructivism]] in [[architecture]] and remains important within [[art]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Deconstruction – Art Term|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/deconstruction|website=Tate|access-date=16 September 2017|quote=Since Derrida's assertions in the 1970s, the notion of deconstruction has been a dominating influence on many writers and conceptual artists.}}</ref> [[music]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cobussen|first1=Marcel|title=Deconstruction in Music. The Jacques Derrida – Gerd Zacher Encounter|url=https://cobussenma.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/derrida_zacher_encounter.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909010422/https://cobussenma.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/derrida_zacher_encounter.pdf |archive-date=2017-09-09 |url-status=live|website=Thinking Sounds|access-date=8 September 2017|date=2002}}</ref> and [[literary criticism]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Douglas|first1=Christopher|title=Glossary of Literary Theory|url=http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/glossary/Deconstruction.html|website=University of Toronto English Library|access-date=16 September 2017|date=31 March 1997|archive-date=8 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108222608/http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/glossary/Deconstruction.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Kandell|first1=Jonathan|title=Jacques Derrida, Abstruse Theorist, Dies at 74|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/obituaries/jacques-derrida-abstruse-theorist-dies-at-74.html?_r=1|website=The New York Times|access-date=1 June 2017|date=10 October 2004}}</ref>