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BORDER LINES According to a tradition dating from 1479, English universities award honorary degrees to distinguished people. It's never been quite clear why. But it's assumed that both parties benefit. On 21 March 1992, senior members of the University of Cambridge gathered to decide its annual awards. It should have been a formality - no candidate had been opposed for twentynine years. But the name Jacques Derrida was on the list. Four of the dons ritually declared non placet ("not contented"). They were Dr Henry Erskine-Hill, Reader in Literary History: Ian Jack, Professor of English Literature; David Hugh Mellor, Professor of Philosophy; Raymond Ian Page, Bosworth Professor of AngloSaxon. And they forced the University to arrange a ballot. NON PLACET
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There were two problems. First, this was a boundary dispute. Most of Derrida's proposers were members of the English faculty, but by training and profession Derrida was a philosopher. But more trenchantly, Cambridge traditionalists in both disciplines saw Derrida's thinking as deeply improper, offensive and subversive. Campaigns were organized, and the Press was alerted. To the outraged dons, Derrida represented an insidious, fashionable strand of "French theory". They stru ck AngloSaxon attitudes .. FRENCH ACADEMIC PHILOSOPHY RUNS BY A SYSTEM OF MANDARINS AND GURUS AND FASHIONS. THEY WOULD BE GENERALLY PERCEIVED BY BRITISH PHILOSOPHERS AS NOT HAVING THE SAME STANDARDS OF PRECISION AND CLARITY AND RIGOUR WE WOULD [oav1d·Hi1te1 Ruben] LOTS OF PEOPLE THESE DAYS INVOKE SOMETHING CALLED "THEORY", WHICH I THINK A PROPER PHILOSOPHER WOULD NOT ADMIT TO. WHAT SORT OF WRITER IS DERRIDA? IS HE A FAILED THEORIST? IF NOT A THEORIST, THEN WHAT/SHE? THE FRENCH EXCEL IN FABRICATED TERMS OF SHIFTY MEANING WHICH MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO DETECT AT WHAT POINT PHILOSOPHICAL SPECULATION TURNS TO GIBBERISH DECONSTRUCTION IS A THEORY WHICH APPEARS TO LENO ITSELF MOST READILY TO BABBLING OBFUSCATION. [Peter Lennon}

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BORDER LINES According to a tradition dating from 1479, English universities award honorary degrees to distinguished people. It's never been quite clear why. But it's assumed that both parties benefit. On 21 March 1992, senior members of the University of Cambridge gathered to decide its annual awards. It should have been a formality - no candidate had been opposed for twentynine years. But the name Jacques Derrida was on the list. Four of the dons ritually declared non placet ("not contented"). They were Dr Henry Erskine-Hill, Reader in Literary History: Ian Jack, Professor of English Literature; David Hugh Mellor, Professor of Philosophy; Raymond Ian Page, Bosworth Professor of AngloSaxon. And they forced the University to arrange a ballot.

NON PLACET

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