Much of modern European philosophy is built on a foundation that was established in the mid-20th century in France. The philosophical boom was cultivated by the Sorbonne and a culture of defiant intellectualism. Jacques Derrida was one name among many that emerged during his period; his philosophical innovations appeared alongside the works of Emmanuel Levinas, Roland Barthes, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Lacan, and many others. The French playwright Hélène Cixous referred to the generation of philosophers during this period as “The Incorruptibles.” Derrida later explained that the term referred to the drive of his contemporaries to pursue writing and thinking independent from mainstream influence or accepted ideals. He was greatly influenced by his contemporaries and the philosophers who preceded him, and their names punctuate his work. As he outlines his arguments in On Grammatology, Derrida weaves in and challenges the theories of his peers and predecessors.

When Derrida was only 24, he visited a collection of Husserl’s works that was compiled after Husserl’s death. Derrida came across a short essay, only 30 pages, called “The Origin of Geometry.” In the essay, Husserl questions the idea that a number is something that exists in the external world.