The Dangerous Supplement: Derrida, Plato, and the Death of the Author
Deconstructing Authorship from Socratic Dialogue to Literary Theory Introduction Throughout the history of Western thought, the question of authorship has haunted philosophical inquiry. Who speaks, and from where does meaning emerge? In Plato’s dialogues—particularly Ion and Phaedrus —a clear opposition is drawn between knowledge grounded in rational method ( techne ) and inspiration derived from external or divine forces ( enthousiasmos ) . This suspicion toward inspired speech extends to writing itself, which Plato, through the voice of the Egyptian king Thamus, considers a poor substitute for memory and understanding. Jacques Derrida’s Plato’s Pharmacy , a landmark in deconstructive philosophy, re-examines this binary and exposes its instability. His notion of the pharmakon , meaning both cure and poison, destabilizes the privileged position traditionally granted to speech. Roland Barthes, writing in the twentieth century, revisits similar issues through his distinction b...