The life of a professional philosopher is, it is commonly thought, one of solitude, reflection, and introspection, a life of reading, writing, and thinking far from the public eye. Such a view is surely not incorrect. It is hard to imagine a philosopher who does not spend a good part of his or her day poring over a text trying to understand an argument, hunched over a keyboard trying to turn a phrase, or just looking out the window trying to put some order into his or her thoughts. But there are also philosophers who, in addition to this more private life, spend much of their time in public, before the public eye, teaching, lecturing, and speaking with students, or else giving papers and presentations at various universities, professional conferences, and public meetings. Jacques Derrida was one of those philosophers. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more visible or more public philosopher, especially during the last three to four decades of his life.