Reality is carved up in various ways according to the manifold patterns of sameness and difference which various languages provide. Both are caught up in a play of distinctive features where differences of sound and sense are the only markers of meaning. To put it differently, structuralism dispensed with the correspondence theory of truth and language in favor of the coherence theory of truth. Deconstruction, on the other hand, rejects the stability of the sign and accordingly rejects both theories of truth. It should be noted, however, that Derrida does not reject the necessity of rational discourse, and he still shares structuralism's emphasis on scientific, rational criticism.
Formalisation is a fruitful, useful activity.
One can never give up this task without running the risk of giving up rationality, scientificity itself in its most classical concept. These are thinkers who recognize that value of rational thought, but they are skeptical about the ability of philosophy to specify exactly what grounds rational thought, if anything grounds it at all. Moreover, they are skeptical of the traditional answers given to questions about knowledge and reality. Deconstructionists are in the same epistemological boat as Hume. Often accused of being a relativist, pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty has stated that he and other pragmatists are only relativists about metaphilosophical issues, i.e., the central questions of Western philosophy.