Christopher Charles Norris (born 6 November 1947)"Christopher (Charles) Norris" (2002). ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Gale. Retrieved on January 19, 2007. is a British

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

Career

Norris completed his PhD in English at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

in 1975. After an early career in literary and music criticism (during the late 1970s, he wrote for the now-defunct magazine ''Records and Recording''), Norris moved in 1991 to the Cardiff Philosophy Department. In 1997, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor in the Cardiff School of English, Communication & Philosophy. He has also held fellowships and visiting appointments at a number of institutions, including the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

, and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. He is one of the world's leading scholars on

deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

, and the work of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

. He has written numerous books and papers on

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

philosophy of music Philosophy of music is the study of "fundamental questions about the nature and value of music and our experience of it".Andrew Kania,The Philosophy of Music, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Spring 2014 edition, edited by Edward N. Zal ...

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

and

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

. More recently, he has been focussing on the work of

Alain Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault ...

in relation with both the analytic tradition (particularly analytic

philosophy of mathematics Philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of mathematics and its relationship to other areas of philosophy, particularly epistemology and metaphysics. Central questions posed include whether or not mathem ...

) and with the philosophy of Derrida.

Selected works

* ''Deconstruction: Theory and Practice''. London; New York: Methuen, 1982 * ''Deconstructive Turn: Essays in the Rhetoric of Philosophy''. New York: Routledge, 1983/2010 *
Inside the Myth: Orwell, Views from the Left
' (Ed). London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984 * ''The Contest of Faculties: Philosophy and Theory After Deconstruction''. 1985 * ''Derrida'' (Fontana Modern Masters). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987 * ''Paul de Man: Deconstruction and the Critique of the Aesthetic Ideology''. Routledge, 1988/2009 * ''What's Wrong with Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990 * ''Spinoza and the Origins of Modern Critical Theory''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991 * ''Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals, and the Gulf War''. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992 * ''Truth and the Ethics of Criticism''. Manchester University Press, 1994. * ''Resources of Realism: Truth, Meaning, and Interpretation''. Palgrave, 1997 * ''Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997 * ''New Idols of the Cave: On the Limits of Anti-realism''. Manchester University Press, 1997 * ''Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism: Philosophical Responses to Quantum Mechanics''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000 * ''Minding the Gap: Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Two Traditions''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000 * ''Hilary Putnam: Realism, Reason, and the Uses of Uncertainty.''. Manchester University Press, 2002 * ''Truth Matters: Realism, Anti-realism and Response-dependence''. Edinburgh University Press, 2002 * ''Platonism, music and the listener's share''. London: Continuum, 2006 * ''Badiou's Being and Event: A reader's guide''. London; New York: Continuum, 2009 * ''Re-thinking the Cogito. Naturalism, Rationalism and the Venture of Thought''. London; New York: Continuum, 2010 * ''Derrida, Badiou, and the Formal Imperative''. Continuum, 2012 * ''Philosophy Outside-in: A Critique of Academic Reason''. Edinburgh University Press, 2013

References

External links

Christopher Norris’ webpage at Cardiff UniversityAudio 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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Christopher 1947 births Living people Dartmouth College faculty Deconstruction British literary critics Alumni of University College London Academics of Cardiff University 20th-century English philosophers 21st-century English philosophers