[lbo-talk] How radical was Derrida? (was 'does anyone read poststructuralism anymore?')

[Asad Haider]

> ... but when you add "...and its epistemological manifestations", maybe
> that makes sense - if you see Republicanism and the Enlightenment tradition
> as leading inexorably towards colonialism. But that is itself a tendentious
> point, and one that does more to justify anti-rational and anti-democratic
> currents than it does to challenge colonialism.
>

I don't know. France has a very strong ideology of cultural/political
homogeneity--which can be observed in the ideological positions in the
debate around immigrants, Islam, the hijab etc. All people who are permitted
to call themseves French are first and foremost citizens of the republic,
and participants in the glorious patrimoine, the exceptional cultural
heritage of France. Even the left positions in the immigration debate often
end up arguing that people who work in France should be permitted to include
themselves in this republican heritage.

Derrida came along and based his philosophical inquiries on difference, even
arguing the foundations of the French tradition (Rousseau etc) relied on
difference and the reality constructed by the other even as they attemped to
negate .

I think he struck a blow against reactionary political forces *as they
existed* in his own discipline, something that Alan Sokal certainly does not
seem willing to do.