Writing as a condition of philosophy in Derrida's philosophy

Abstract

In one of his most famous works, Plato’s Pharmacy, Derrida outlines crucial questions about writing, analyzing it through a reading of Plato’s dialogues, primarily the Phaedrus. Here, writing is revisited through the concept of phármakon, understood within its own ambiguity, being both poison and cure for memory, communication, and the development of human knowledge. On the one hand, the historical criticisms of the ambiguities of writing, according to Derrida, reveal a certain centrality of lógos and voice (logocentrism and phonocentrism) in Western thought. On the other hand, due to its inherent ambiguity, writing proves to be of utmost importance to thinking, presenting itself as a supplement to lógos. Thus, drawing on Derrida’s arguments in Plato’s Pharmacy and his quasi-concepts—trace and différance—we aim to demonstrate how writing, scripturality, and Archi-écriture emerge as conditions for the development of thought and, therefore, as the very condition of philosophy itself.