Logocentrism, as a general definition, is the accepted assumption in literary theory that there is an independent "truth" that precedes its representation through language or language, and that truth and reality actually exist outside the language factor. Thus, logocentrism calls for treating linguistic signs as detached and unnecessary to the objects (to be marked ) that they represent. Therefore, there is also a clear preference for speech over writing , since in the first there is the presence of the speaker, who is perceived as a mediator who has the ability to largely eliminate the ambiguity and ambiguity that exist in the written language. This preference of speech over writing, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida calls "phonocentrism".
In the scathing critique that Derrida makes of this view, he defines it as a " prejudice " rooted in Western philosophy almost from its inception since the days of ancient Greece . It is referred to by him as the "metaphysics of presence."
Another critique of this conception is that it refers simplistically to the more complex relationship between signifier and signified .
Derrida also argues that this metaphysics (as he called it) tends to identify basic philosophical conceptions such as: " truth ", " reality ", and " existence " - in conceptual terms of "presence", "essence", " identity " and "source" - out of almost complete disregard for the crucial role played by "absence" and "difference" (Difference), within any possible definition or understanding of these perceptions.
