DERRIDA'S RIGHT TO PHILOSOPHY, THEN AND NOW

In this essay, a tribute to Jacques Derrida's educational efforts at expanding access to current work in philosophy, John Willinsky examines his efforts as both a public right and an element of academic freedom that bear on the open access movement today. Willinsky covers Derrida's extension and outreach work with the Groupe de Recherches pour l'Enseignement de la Philosophie in the 1970s and a decade later with Collège International de Philosophie that provided public access to ongoing and leading-edge philosophical work, as well as supporting the teaching of philosophy in the schools. Willinsky also relates Derrida's dedicated, practical educational work, his historical analysis of Descartes's decision to write in French, and more recent initiatives that are using Internet technologies to increase public and educational access to published scholarly work in the humanities in a very similar spirit.