Theoria, Beograd 2022 Volume 65, Issue 4, Pages: 137-146
https://doi.org/10.2298/THEO2204137M
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Jacques Derrida and the question what is theory?
Mevorah Vera 
(Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju, Univerzitet u Beogradu)
Miško Šuvaković states that „Theory or theorization are hybrid genres or
polygenres that developed in parallel in artistic, activist and academic
circles (France, Great Britain, USA, Eastern Europe) by criticizing
autonomous canonical models and institutions of scientific and philosophical
work in society, culture and art“ (Šuvaković 2008). In this paper, I will
look at the question „What is theory?“ by reading the works of Jacques
Derrida, Paul de Man and Richard Rorty and starting from the above-mentioned
framework of „theory“ defined primarily as a school of thought practiced
today dominantly in the academic sphere in the USA. For Derrida, the
question „what is?“ is at the basis of all other questions, especially those
that govern (governmentality) our understanding of the world, such as
questions of truth, consciousness, and subjectivity. These questions have
been considered in philosophy in different ways, but the one that is most
significant for my topic is the relationship of presence/absence, internal/
external, physis/mimesis viewed through the concept of writing.
Keywords: Derrida, theory, writing, language, deconstruction
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