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Deconstruction (déconstruction) is a post-structuralist literary theory   and philosophy of language   derived principally from the work of Jacques Derrida. The premise of deconstruction is that all of Western literature and philosophy implicitly relies on a metaphysics of presence. Metaphysics of presence—as understood by Derrida—refers to the notion that consciousness can be completely oriented towards the present such that concepts—unmediated by prior knowledge, future expectations or language, i.e. self-sufficient concepts—become available as knowledge to the conscious subject. That is to say that instrinsic meaning exists and that it is accessible by virtue of pure presence. Deconstruction denies the possibility of a pure presence and thus of essential or instrinsic meaning. Derrida terms the philosophical commitment to pure presence as a source of self-sufficient meaning logocentrism. Given the impossibility of pure presence and consequently of instrinsic meaning any given concept is constituted and comprehended linguistically and in terms of its opposite, e.g. perception/reason, speech/writing, mind/body, interior/exterior, marginal/central, sensible/intelligible, intution/signification, nature/culture. Further, Derrida contends that of these dichotomies one member is associated with presence and consequently more highly valued than the other which is associated with absence. Deconstruction reveals the metaphysics of presence in a text by identifying its conceptual binary oppositions and demonstrating the speciousness of their hierarchy by denying the possibility of comprehending the "superior" element of the hierarchy in the absence of its "inferior" counterpart. Denying an absolute and intrinsic meaning to either element of the hierarchy différance is revealed (rather than proposed as an alternative ) according to Derrida. Différance is a Derridaean neologism that is the antithesis of logocentrism, it is a perpetual series of interactions between presence and absence—where a concept is constituted, comprehended and identified in terms of what it is not and self-sufficient meaning is never arrived at —and thus a relinquishment of the notions of intrinsic and stable meaning, absolute truth, unmediated access to "reality" and consequently of conceptual hierarchy.

To situate deconstruction within philosophy in general, it is a critique of Idealism and a form of antifoundationalism. In terms of heritage, style and conceptual framework (namely phenomenological  ), deconstruction is within the Continental—as opposed to analytic—tradition of philosophy.