Pharmakon

In Philosophy

Derrida employs the Greek word pharmakon to denote the endless deferral of meaning in language, a power of reversal that is hidden in language itself. The word pharmakon could be taken to mean a remedy or medicine. The meaning is ambiguous because the drug or Pharmakon can also function as as poison. As a function of language, pharmakon can refer to a spell, a form of persuasion, an object of seduction, a text or anything else that has the power, e.g., in the case of writing, to make "one stray from one's general, natural, habitual paths and laws (Dissemination 70)."