结构与解构——从索绪尔到德里达

Structure and Deconstruction—from Saussure to Derrida

自从索绪尔《普通语言学教程》问世以来,曾经被认为是推翻了逻各斯中心主义的结构主义已经从语言学延伸到西方人文学科的各个角落。上个世纪70年代,法国哲学家雅克·德里达猛烈批判结构主义,认为索绪尔并没有像他所希望的那样彻底颠覆逻各斯中心主义,而是在其结构主义理论中仍然坚持构成逻各斯中心主义基础的语音中心论和在场形而上学。因此,提出解构主义理论,以期彻底摧毁逻各斯中心主义的基础。本文所强调的是,德里达虽然承认意义是由差别构成的这一结构主义原则,但是认为语言符号是一个开放系统,从而打破了语言符号是一个封闭系统的结构主义观念。

Since F.de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics came out, structuralism, which was considered to have overthrown Logoscentralism, was extended from linguistics to almost every corner of western humanities and even gave rise to the so called 'linguistic turning' in the studies of western philosophy. In the seventies of last century Jacques Derrida criticized structuralism in that Saussure did not overthrow Logoscentralism as completely as he wished. In his theory of structrualism Saussure still maintained the phonetic centralism and the present metaphysics, both of which underlies Logoscentralism. Therefore Derrida proposed deconstruction to destroy the foundation of Logoscentralism. This paper highlights the fact that Derrida acknowledged the principle in structuralism that meaning comes from differences but, by maintaining that it is an open system, he broke away from the structuralist concept that language signs form a closed system.