Archaeology of the Frivolous : Reading Condillac

""The Archeology of the Frivolous" is a brilliant essay by an original, historically knowledgeable and fascinating thinker of great importance to our understanding of the metaphysics which, he claims, has dominated Western thought from Plato to Hegel...John Leavey has done an heroic job by translating into English a writer who plays in Joycean fashion on the nuances of French words." - "Philosophical Topics".

In 1746, the French philosopher, Condillac published his Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge, one of many attempts during the century to determine how we organize and validate ideas as knowledge.

In investigating language, especially written language, he found not only the seriousness he sought but also a great deal of frivolity whose relation to the sober business of philosophy had to be addressed somehow.

If the mind truly reflects the world, and language reflects the mind, why is there so much error and nonsense?

Whence the distortions? How can they be remedied?In "The Archeology of the Frivolous", Jacques Derrida recoups Condillac's enterprise, showing how it anticipated - consciously or not - many of the issues that have since stymied epistemology and linguistic philosophy.

If anyone doubts that deconstruction can be a powerful analytic method, try this.