logocentrism

is the attitude that speech is central to thought and that writing is derivative. The claim is that thought, law, or reason is the central principles of language and philosophy.

logocentrism' is the attitude that logos (the Greek term for speech, thought, law, or reason) is the central principle of language and philosophy

is a way to describe how Western thought imagines that meaning exists in some realm of pure consciousness and finds its outward form in language.

In this way writing threatens the logocentric tradition of Western thought, the assumption that ideas come into being first, and seek expression in speech, which is then transcribed into writing. Logocentrism puts meaning at the centre, imagines that the signified exists in some realm of pure consciousness and then finds its outward form in language.

is the false notion in Western thought that language is transparent, a pane of glass through which ideas are perceptible in their pure intelligibility.

Q. Derrida is very hard to read. Why doesn't he write more simply? Doesn’t he want to communicate? But third, it is also important from the point of view of the case against logocentrism to demonstrate in practice that language is not transparent, not a pane of glass through which ideas are perceptible in their pure intelligibility. (On the other hand, the same mannerisms reproduced in the writings of his less gifted disciples can be very irritating indeed!)

is the false Western notion there is a pure concept, an idea which, when looked for, shows itself to be always deferred, pushed away and postponed, relegated by the signifier, which is all we can bring before us, or isolate for inspection.

Logocentrism imagines there is a pure concept, an idea. But where is this to be found? The signifier supplants it. Only the signifier is present in writing or speech: the imagined presence of the meaning as pure idea is deferred, pushed away and postponed, relegated by the signifier, which is all we can bring before us, or isolate for inspection.

is the supposition that meanings have priority over the signifier, that language is the expression of a prior concept existing as pure intelligibility.

logocentrism: supposition that meanings have priority over the signifier, that language is the expression of a prior concept existing as pure intelligibility,

logocentrism, n.All

logocentrism