Christopher Norris (critic)

Christopher Charles Norris (born 6 November 1947) is a British philosopher and literary critic.

Career

As of 2013 Prof. Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at Cardiff University. He completed his PhD in English at University College London in 1975, while Sir Frank Kermode served as the Lord Northcliffe Professor of modern English literature there.

After an early career in Literary Criticism, in 1991 Norris moved to the Cardiff Philosophy Department where, in 1997, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor. He has also held fellowships and visiting appointments at a number of institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, the City University of New York, Aarhus University, and Dartmouth College.

He is one of the world's leading scholars on deconstruction, and the work of Jacques Derrida. He has written numerous books and papers on literary theory, continental philosophy, philosophy of music, philosophy of language and philosophy of science. More recently, he has been focussing on the work of Alain Badiou in relation with both the analytic tradition (particularly analytic philosophy of mathematics) and with the philosophy of Derrida. Norris has been criticised by Roger Scruton for accepting Derrida's thesis of logocentrism "with a dogmatic conviction that closes the door to argument".

Selected works

• Theory and Practice
• Against Relativism
• New Idols of the Cave
• Uncritical Theory
• The Contest of Faculties: Philosophy and Theory After Deconstruction
• Derrida (Fontana Modern Masters)
• What's Wrong with Postmodernism
• Deconstruction: Theory and Practice
• Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism: Philosophical Responses to Quantum Mechanics
• Minding the Gap: Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Two Traditions
• Truth Matters: Realism, Anti-realism and Response-dependence
• Spinoza and the Origins of Modern Critical Theory
• Resources of Realism: Truth, Meaning, and Interpretation
• Inside the Myth: Orwell, Views from the Left (Ed)
• Badiou's Being and Event
• Re-thinking the Cogito. Naturalism, Rationalism and the Venture of Thought
• Derrida, Badiou, and the Formal Imperative

See also

• List of thinkers influenced by deconstruction

External links

• Christopher Norris’ webpage at Cardiff University
• Audio recording of Norris on the role of philosophy in relation to neuroscience at Cardiff 'Philosophy Cafe'
• CBC Podcast for the series 'How to think about science' with Christopher Norris discussing scientific realism