The Rhetoric of Drugs

Short description: 1990 work by Jacques Derrida

"The Rhetoric of Drugs" (French: Rhétorique de la drogue) is a 1990 work by French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Derrida, interviewed, discusses the concept of "drug", and says that "Already one must conclude that the concept of drug is a non-scientific concept, that it is instituted on the basis of moral or political evaluations."[1] In his philosophical-linguistic analysis, Derrida unmasks the socio-cultural mystifications made on the discourses on drugs.

Derrida also discusses drugs use by athletes. Exploring its confines, he says: "and what about women athletes who get pregnant for the stimulating, hormonal effects and then have an abortion after their event?"[2]

Derrida discusses how the link between the rhetoric of drugs and the Western ideology. He also says that "Adorno and Horkheimer correctly point out that drug culture has always been associated with the West's other, with Oriental ethics and religion",[3][4] and adds: "The Enlightenment [...] is in itself a declaration of war on drugs."[3]

## Contents

* 1 Editions
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 References

## Editions

This interview was made in 1989 and published more than one time as a journal article. It was included in the Derrida's 1992 book Points de suspension. Entretiens, as section XIV. The English edition of Points de suspension. Entretiens, titled Points...: Interviews 1974–1994 (1995), contained the interview at pp. 228–254, as the final part of the chapter Autobiophotographies.

* "The Rhetoric of Drugs. an Interview" – journal article by Jacques Derrida; Differences, Vol. 5, 1993
* "The Rhetoric of Drugs", translated by Michael Israel; published in Points: Interviews 1974-1994 (1995)

## See also

* Prohibition (drugs)
* Recreational drug use
* Hard and soft drugs
* Arguments for and against drug prohibition
* Cognitive liberty

## Notes

1. ↑ Eng. 1995, p.229
2. ↑ Eng. 1995, p.248 original: "Et la pratique des athlètes femmes qui provoquent une grossesse dont les effets endocriniens sont «dopants» et qui avortent après l’épreuve?"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Eng. 1995, p.250
4. ↑ Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 1944, pp. 75–76.

## References

* English edition, 1995
* Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer [1944]. Dialectic of Enlightenment (French translation by E. Kaufholz, Gallimard, 1974)
* Ma la droga non e' solo una parola, article published by Corriere della Sera, March 1993. Quotes from Montalcini:

> "the quibbles of a philosopher!" accuses Rita Levi Montalcini, which was the protagonist, with Di Pietro and Archbishop Martini, of last anti-drug publicity campaign. [...] Rita Levi Montalcini turns up her nose, bothered: "it seems to me that this gentleman ( 'questo signore', an Italian mildly derogative expression ) amuses himself quibbling, in order to appear original. Those that we call drugs ( "stupefacenti", an Italian word that sounds somewhat more 'official' ) are substances that are well identified both on the pharmacological-botanical level and on the behavioural level. You can mythologize them as much as you want, but it has been proven, that they are not at all, means to reach an higher knowledge. On the contrary, they decrease cognitive ability and increase emotional responses. Neither Newton nor Einstein made their discoveries under the action of any drug".

* v
* t
* e

Jacques Derrida

Interviews collections|

* Positions (1972)
* The Rhetoric of Drugs (1989)
* Points... (1995)
* Paper Machine (2001)

Essays|

| 1950s–1960s|

* The Problem of Genesis in Husserl's Philosophy (1953)
* Introduction to Husserl's The Origin of Geometry (1962)
* "Cogito and the History of Madness" (1963)
* Of Grammatology (1967)
* Speech and Phenomena (1967)
* Writing and Difference (1967)
* Plato's Pharmacy (1968)

|

1970s|

* Dissemination (1972)
* Margins of Philosophy (1972)
* The Archeology of the Frivolous (1973)
* Glas (1974)
* Spurs: Nietzsche's Styles (1978)
* The Truth in Painting (1978)

1980s|

* The Post Card (1980)
* The Ear of the Other (1982)
* Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy (1983)
* Ulysses Gramophone (1984)
* Two Words for Joyce (1984)
* Signeponge-Signsponge (1984)
* Memoires for Paul de Man (1986)
* Of Spirit (1987)
* Psyche: Inventions of the Other (Vol. I, 1987)
* Cinders (1987)
* Choral Work (1988)
* Limited Inc. (1988)

1990s|

* Right to Philosophy (1990)
* The Other Heading (1991)
* Acts of Literature (1991)
* Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money (1991)
* The Gift of Death (1992)
* Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins (1993)
* Specters of Marx (1993)
* Archive Fever (1995)
* The Right to Philosophy from the Cosmopolitical Point of View (1997)

2000s|

* Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy (2002)
* The Animal That Therefore I Am (2008)

Concepts|

* Deconstruction
* Différance
* Phallogocentrism
* Phonocentrism
* Logocentrism
* Metaphysics of presence
* Free play

Related articles|

* Marguerite Aucouturier
* Gadamer–Derrida debate
* Sokal affair
* Derrida
* The Reception of Derrida

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