Having deconstructed the subject of metaphysics through a meditation on the sign, Derrida next turns, in Of Grammatology, to the treatment of writing in metaphysics. According to Derrida, just as Husserl had tried to exclude from consciousness the need for signs, to exclude sensible signifiers from expression, so does the whole of metaphysics, from the pre-Socratics to Heidegger, exclude writing from the realm of truth. Metaphysics does this by debasing writing, making it a mere inscription of already present meaning and truth. Like the sign in his analysis of Husserl, “the treatment accorded to writing” is regarded as “a particularly revelatory symptom” (Pos 7).

In the first part of Of Grammatology, Derrida sets his deconstructive method and its results in its broadest context. In his own words: “The first part of this book, ‘Writing before the Letter,’ sketches in broad outlines a theoretical matrix. It indicates certain significant historical moments, and proposes certain critical concepts” (OG lxxxix).