Derridas Postmodernism And Meaning

Derrida’s Postmodernism and Meaning By Anthony J. Fejfar, B.A., J.D., Esq., Coif © Copyright 2009 by Anthony J. Fejfar Some argue, following Derrida’s Postmodernism, that anything can mean anything. Following Gadamer’s Hermeutics, this is not true. Gadamer says that there are “Forestructures” of Knowing which partially structure interpretation. In fact, Neoplatonists would go even further and say that there is an Immutable Platonic Form for every word which is a metaphysical, vibrating probability field.

In fact, there are Greek

or Latin roots to most American English words and they have been around for thousands of years. There is a received tradition, culturally, and genetically which requires that certain words have certain meanings.

Male is not female and female is not male. It is

psychotic to go around calling men women and vice versa. Additionally, hermeneutics teaches us that there is a cultural context for every word and every act of interpretation which cannot be ignored.

In Law, for example, there are received meanings for words

that go back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and this cultural tradition cannot be ignored. Meaning always takes place in a personal and cultural context. Because of context, not anything can mean anything. Society will not stand for the idea that anything can mean anything. People who say that anything can mean anything end up on a psychiatric ward for schizophrenia.