Intermissions: Critical Observations on Otherness in Jacques Derrida

Abstract

Derrida is certainly one of the most controversial philosophers of the 20th century. His critical vision of western tradition, of what he called “metaphysics of presence”, and his deconstruction of every kind of domination and violence greatly influenced contemporary philosophical studies. This article focuses on three aspects of his vision of otherness: violence, the process of exclusion of difference as a strategy to maintain the stability of the self and identity; the question of language as the fundamental medium to approach the other, a medium which is not neutral and is radically liked to a particular cultural tradition and finally the other as the protagonist of democratic processes. The Other is that subject whose voice is not able to speak in the western philosophical tradition: the philosopher’s purpose is to find the moments of this exclusion and work for a new inclusion of difference, as much as it is possible.