Derrida: Philosophy or literature?

Abstract

Summary The present article focuses on the question whether, as Habermas claims, Jacques Derrida collapses the genre distinction between philosophy and literature by means of the (alleged) levelling effect of his notion of textuality. More specifically, Habermas accuses Derrida of failing to respect the normative demands of argumentation that characterize philosophical, as opposed to literary‐expressive language, with the result that his deconstructive discourse is reduced to literature. According to Habermas, the price that Derrida has to pay in the process is the problem‐solving, consensus‐promoting capacity of philosophy. By way of a careful examination of relevant passages from Derrida's as well as from Habermas's work, and with the help of Norris's critical commentary on Habermas's reception of Derrida, it is demonstrated that the latter's literary style of writing is combined with a degree of argumentative rigour which places its philosophical significance above suspicion.