'Derrida, architecture and philosophy'

The history of philosophy has always demonstrated a two-fold concern with architecture. The first is by philosophy either addressing architecture as an aesthetic form (e.g. in Hegel’s Aesthetics), or deploying architectural examples in a more general discussion of aesthetics or art (e.g. Heidegger’s discussion of the Greek temple in The Origin of the Work of Art). The second is the presence of architectural forms (e.g. Kant’s architectonic) or architectural metaphors in the development or construction of a philosophical argument. The second of these is, in this instance, the more relevant. To delimit a specific terrain of discussion into which Derrida’s writings on architecture can be articulated, I will concentrate on the justly famous architectural metaphor developed by Descartes in the second part of the Discourse on Method. Despite the length of this passage I will quote it in full in order that its force may be made clear.