Abstract

I call Derrida ‘The Sad Rider’ for reasons that will become clear. In his two main roles, as a philosopher and as a historian of ideas, Derrida took up the ladder after him. The younger Wittgenstein called it the philosopher’s duty, and I think Derrida accepted it. He wrote in a way that was unexcerptable and barely quotable, and formulated few propositions. His unteachability was a living instance of what he meant by non-iterability. He hoped to avoid the fate he ascribed to ‘writing’.