ABSTRACT
Some feminist dismissals of reason as male do seem to come perilously close to Eco's picture of a poignant search for a sardine can opener. The feminist critique of reason is centered on its alleged maleness, but it shares in the strengths and confusions of broader criticism of reason. The book The Man of Reason: "Male" and "Female" in Western Philosophy directly addressed neither the sex-gender distinction nor the distinction between the metaphoric and the literal. Metaphors have their philosophical import as well as their cultural effects. Jacques Derrida's feminine lacks determinate content in the same way that difference lacks determinate content. Deconstructive play with the representation of Woman can give us a better understanding of this spurious neutrality. There are similar interplays in other aspects of the conceptualization of reason that have been illuminated through Derrida's deconstructive reading strategies. Descartes's need to "fix" the mind in contemplation is frustrated by the unavoidability of time.
