How did Martin Heidegger influence Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Western metaphysics?

Martin Heidegger’s influence on Jacques Derrida was foundational to the development of deconstruction. Derrida consistently acknowledged that the philosophical origins of his technique—which critically examines and undermines the fundamental conceptual distinctions of Western philosophy—could be traced to Heidegger’s program of a "destruction of the history of ontology" as articulated in his seminal work, Being and Time (1927).12

Heidegger’s critique of the Western "metaphysics of subjectivity" and his broader investigation into the "history of Being" (Seinsgeschichte) provided a critical framework for Derrida’s own project. By engaging with this Heideggerian tradition, Derrida sought to dismantle the "metaphysics of presence"—the assumption that systematic philosophy can capture reality as an unmediated, stable truth.12

Rather than simply abandoning philosophy, Derrida adopted Heidegger’s approach of "continuing to read philosophers in a certain way," aiming to displace rather than merely invert the binary oppositions (such as speech/writing or presence/absence) that have characterized Western thought since the time of the ancient Greeks.32