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Despite its consistently mild tone, Simon Glendinning's The Idea of Continental Philosophy is a provocative and uncompromising work. It is to be admired for this. -- Jack Reynolds, La Trobe University International Journal of Philosophical Studies Despite its consistently mild tone, Simon Glendinning's The Idea of Continental Philosophy is a provocative and uncompromising work. It is to be admired for this.
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The idea of Continental Philosophy has never been properly explained in philosophical terms. In this short and engaging book Simon Glendinning attempts finally to succeed where others have failed -- although not by giving an account of its internal unity but by showing instead why no such account can be given. Providing a clear picture of the current state of the contemporary philosophical culture Glendinning traces the origins and development of the idea of a distinctive Continental tradition, critiquing current attempts to survey the field of contemporary philosophy.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like the author, I have been entranced for years now by the near impossible task to understand what that elusive continental philosophy is really all about. Having read Glendinnings book (as the last in a line of books which tried to explain to me what this is all about, and which all had their merrits in teaching me about various valuable insights of so called continental philosophers and their charming ways of doing things a bit different) I think I am finally getting full picture.
There is this idea of a Continental Philosophy provided by analytic philosophy which has all to do with a big split which runs right through the heart of philosophy and divides it into two big schools of thought fighting for the hearts and minds of young philosophers. Analytic philosophy on the side of light, reason, method, and science and continental philosophy on the side of darkness and willful erratic obscurantist relativistic irrationality (or some such).
But as Glendinning convincingly argues that idea doesn't work. The main thrust of his argument goes into proving that there is no such thing as a school of Continental Philosophy. That type of thinking or tradition is nothing but a projection of analytic philosophers onto all those philosophical authors which don't play by the rules which they think essential for proper philosophical work. In reality those continental authors have no general common ground but are themselves many different schools of thought and not all are equally opposed to analytic philosophy, and finally they don't all unite in some systematic striving for obscurant irrational wilfulness.
It turns out the sad truth is that analytic philosophy has grown big enough in the US and the UK to convince itself that it would be the only real philosophy and in that delusion they mistook the split between them and the rest of Philosophy for a split between two modes of doing philosophy. Or, to put it bluntly 'Continental Philosophy' is really just philosophy (i.e. a diverse group of people working in the general tradition of philosophy), while analytic philosophy is a school of thought within philosophy, which happens to come with a lot of strict convictions about what is or isn't done by a proper philosopher, which in turn is why they perceive this horrible rift between themselves and all those others who are committing the sin (or thought crime) of not being analytic philosophers. Thankfully, it is inevitable that such a delusion will eventually crumble and analytic philosopherers will find the way back into the general tradition, most likely to the benefit of everyone.
Best part of the book? Glendinning's analysis of the historic situation in which the story of the big split between analytic and continental philosphy could emerge and take hold of the imagination of all those people working within analytic philosophy. Seeing that laid out, the whole split confusion became perfectly clear.
There is this idea of a Continental Philosophy provided by analytic philosophy which has all to do with a big split which runs right through the heart of philosophy and divides it into two big schools of thought fighting for the hearts and minds of young philosophers. Analytic philosophy on the side of light, reason, method, and science and continental philosophy on the side of darkness and willful erratic obscurantist relativistic irrationality (or some such).
But as Glendinning convincingly argues that idea doesn't work. The main thrust of his argument goes into proving that there is no such thing as a school of Continental Philosophy. That type of thinking or tradition is nothing but a projection of analytic philosophers onto all those philosophical authors which don't play by the rules which they think essential for proper philosophical work. In reality those continental authors have no general common ground but are themselves many different schools of thought and not all are equally opposed to analytic philosophy, and finally they don't all unite in some systematic striving for obscurant irrational wilfulness.
It turns out the sad truth is that analytic philosophy has grown big enough in the US and the UK to convince itself that it would be the only real philosophy and in that delusion they mistook the split between them and the rest of Philosophy for a split between two modes of doing philosophy. Or, to put it bluntly 'Continental Philosophy' is really just philosophy (i.e. a diverse group of people working in the general tradition of philosophy), while analytic philosophy is a school of thought within philosophy, which happens to come with a lot of strict convictions about what is or isn't done by a proper philosopher, which in turn is why they perceive this horrible rift between themselves and all those others who are committing the sin (or thought crime) of not being analytic philosophers. Thankfully, it is inevitable that such a delusion will eventually crumble and analytic philosopherers will find the way back into the general tradition, most likely to the benefit of everyone.
Best part of the book? Glendinning's analysis of the historic situation in which the story of the big split between analytic and continental philosphy could emerge and take hold of the imagination of all those people working within analytic philosophy. Seeing that laid out, the whole split confusion became perfectly clear.
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