19 academics summed up the indictments in a letter to The Times:
Derrida Degree a Question of Honour
.. . M. Derrida describes himself as a philosophe r. Hi s influence. howeve r. has been to a s t riking degree almos t e nt.ire ly in fie lds outside philosophy.
ln lhe eyes of philosophers, and c e r tainl y those workin g in leading d e p artm e nt s of philosophy througho ut the world , M. Derrida·s work does not meet accepted standards of c la rity and rigour.
M. Derrida"s writings seem to co n s is t in no s m a ll p art o f e laborate jokes and pun s . He seem s to have com e c lose to making a career o ut o f tra nsla ting imo the ac ademic s phere tr ic ks a nd g immicks s imilar 10 those o f the Dada is t s o r th e co ncrete poets .
Many French philosophers see in M . Derrida o nly c a use for s il e nl embarrassment , hi s antics having contributed s ignificantl y LO the widespread impression tha t contemporary French philosophy is lillle mo re than a n o bjec t o f ridi c ule.
M. De rrid a's volumino u s writings in our view stre tc h the no rm a l fo rm s o f acad e mi c scho larship beyond recog ni t ion.
Above a ll , his works e mploy a wrill e n s ty le 1ha t defi es comprehensio n. Whe n the effo rt is made to penetrate it. it becomes c lear that, whe r e co he re nt assertio ns are be ing made at a ll , these a re e ithe r fa lse or trivial.
Barry Smith (Edito r, The Mo nist) and colleagues a t the lmernati onalc Akademie for Philosophic, Lichtens te in . May 6 th. [s igned by 18 others]
Derrida is accused of obfuscation, trickery and charlatanism. He's not a philosopher, he's a flim-flam artist. And strangely, his trivial joking gimmickry is seen as a powerful threat to philosophy a corrosion rn the very foundations of intellectual life.
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