Philosopher Jacques Derrida dies

World-renowned thinker Jacques Derrida, a founder of the school of philosophy known as deconstructionism, has died, the office of French President Jacques Chirac said today.

Derrida was 74.

Derrida died at a Paris hospital of pancreatic cancer, the television station LCI reported.

The snowy-haired French intellectual taught, and thought, at universities on both sides of the Atlantic, and his works were translated around the world.

Provocative and as difficult to define as his favourite subject - deconstruction – Derrida has been a leading thinker for decades with a major impact on intellectuals.

He is considered the modern-day French intellectual best known internationally.