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Philosophy is the love of wisdom. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best first text,
By Simon (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
I have read other introductions to continental philosophy by Robert Solomon and David West. These are both very good but this book sets itself apart by the engaging way in which it is written and is a better first text than these two for that reason. The book is illuminated by a very personal, characterful, style, without sacrificing clarity and rigour. As you read it, you can almost imagine Critchley talking to you face-to-face. Critchley doesn't attempt to provide a summary of the thoughts of the major continental philosophers - as do Solomon and West - but instead looks, among other things, at how continental philosophy can be contrasted with analytical philosophy. This book is therefore almost an introduction to analytical philosophy too. The relevance and fascination of the subject is brought sharply into focus. The comprehensive references/bibliography will point you in the right direction if you wish to pursue the ideas further. If your enthusiasm for continental philosophy is in need of renewal or has yet to develop then this is the book for you!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This introduction needs an introduction,
By
This review is from: Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
Nicely written - in an 'over a dinner conversational' style. This book however does seem to assume that you already know quite a bit about philosophy. The frequently re-emphasised theme seems to be about giving an answer to the question 'does wisdom have a place in a scientific world?' The conclusions of the Anglo American philosophy style tends towards a 'no' answer, but the 'continental' way towards a 'yes'. However, the author advises, there needs to be a path chosen to avoid the extremes of scientism and obsurantism. I wasn't expecting such a personal opinion type of book. To make sense of some of the book I had to make extensive use of Wikipedia to find out about all the people and ideas mentioned in the book - Habermas and Levinas etc - I would have preferred it if the book saved me from having to go to Wikipedia so frequently (pleasant as this is - but you do get easily sidelined). Some of the vocabularly is technical and not explained before its used. Still not sure what 'hermeneutic' means and its about the most frequently used adjective in the book.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A short discourse,
By Kurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (London, SW1) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)
Part of a series by Oxford University Press, this book, 'Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction', follows the same format as other texts in the Very Short Introduction series -- it has fewer than 150 pages, is well indexed, accessible and interesting narrative, and captures the essence in a very short space the major points of its topic. There are probably nearing 100 volumes in this Very Short Introduction series (making it, ironically, not a Very Short series), but among those that I have read, this text stands out as being one of the best.Simon Critchley is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex and Directeur de Programme at the College International de Philosophie, Paris. He is well versed in Continental Philosophy, particularly as it diverges from British and North American developments in philosophy. The text here begins (more or less) with Kant, and goes forward to the twentieth century, dominated also by German and French thinkers. Critchley argues, in fact, there is no unified, systematic body of work one should call 'Continental Philosophy', but rather that it consists of eclectic and divergent voices bound sometimes by little more than geographic proximity. That having been said, Critchley does work through some major strands and commonalities of approach, or at the very least some vision of the progress of philosophy from one to the other, influences and reactions. In all, this text is a good read, but given its presupposition about the state of philosophical knowledge on the part of the reader, this should not be assumed to be a first text (in the more traditional sense that 'introduction' seems to imply). It helps here if one already knows the major positions of the major philosophers (and wouldn't hurt if one already knew what thinkers like Derrida also thought of them). Like other books in this Very Short series, there are occasional graphics and pictures, and suggestions for further reading, should the Very Short introduction not prove sufficient (and for many, this sample will leave the reader wanting more). I cannot speak too highly of this series. This particular volume, however, is to a certain extent what it says it is, too precisely -- it is not an introduction (however long) to philosophy, but rather presupposes some familiarity with philosophy, and looks at the advent or introduction of what turned out to be the major themes in Continental Philosophy.
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