HANDOUT ON PLATO'S "PHAEDRUS" AND "PLATO'S PHARMACY" (BY JACQUES DERRIDA)
What's here
Before I move on, I should probably point out what's not here: a lot of study questions about "Plato's Pharmacy" itself. If you want questions, you can find a bunch in my "reader's guide" to the essay.
1930 Derrida is born in El Biar, Algeria.
1950 Derrida begins his studies in France.
1957 Derrida becomes interested in how philosophy
both denigrates and depends upon writing.
1962 Derrida's first major publication, a translation of
Edmund Husserl's Origin of Geometry.
1966 Derrida attends a conference on Levi-Strauss at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore. He delivers a paper
called "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of
the Human Sciences," which marks his introduction of
deconstruction into the US. This paper may be the most famous
conference paper of all time.
1967 Derrida publishes Of Grammatology and a collection of
essays, Writing and Difference.
1972 Derrida, Positions, a volume of interviews, and
Dissemination. At this time,
Derrida takes visiting appointments at prestigious US
university, including Yale and Johns Hopkins.
1974 Derrida, Glas
1976 Derrida's Of Grammatology is translated into English.
1979 Derrida, Spurs and "Living On" in Deconstruction and
Criticism, an anthology of essays edited by Harold
Bloom. Contributors to the volume include both Bloom
and Derrida, plus Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, and
Geoffrey Hartman. Since all of these figures teach at
Yale, this book confirms the existence of a "Yale
School" of deconstructive criticism.
1980 Derrida, The Post Card
1982 Derrida's Dissemination, the volume containing "Plato's
Phramacy," is translated into English.
Study questions for Plato's Phaedrus
1. Critics have often complained about pages 95-9, claiming that these pages are a kind of afterthought. What do you make of such complaints? Do you agree that pages 95-9 don't really fit in?
2. In addition to the comments on pages 95-9, do you find any other comments on the origin, nature, or status of writing? Do you find other passages in which Plato even obliquely questions the value of writing--or suggests the superiority of speech over writing?