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Single Idea 6838

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 1. Continental Philosophy ]

Full Idea

The basic map of the continental tradition can be summarised in three terms: critique, praxis and emancipation.

Clarification

'Praxis' concerns practical actions

Gist of Idea

Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation

Source

Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.189)

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.189


A Reaction

I wince at 'emancipation', which seems to take freedom as of unquestionably high value, instead of being one of the principles up for question in social philosophy. There are more presuppositions in Marxist than in analytical philosophy.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [key shared characteristics of continental modern philosophy]:

We must break up the rigidity that our understanding has imposed [Hegel]
Truth does not appear by asserting reasons and then counter-reasons [Hegel]
Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter [Feuerbach]
Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects [Feuerbach]
We must create new words, and treat them as normal, and as if designating real things. [Deleuze]
'Difference' refers to that which eludes capture [Deleuze, by May]
Philosophy and politics are fundamentally linked [Foucault]
Some continental philosophers are relativists - Baudrillard, for example [Baudrillard, by Critchley]
The plague of philosophy is those who criticise without creating, and defend dead concepts [Deleuze/Guattari]
Two marxist ideas have dominated in France: base and superstructure, and ideology [Scruton]
To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being [Critchley]
The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx [Critchley]
German idealism aimed to find a unifying principle for Kant's various dualisms [Critchley]
Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason [Critchley]
Since Hegel, continental philosophy has been linked with social and historical enquiry. [Critchley]
Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation [Critchley]
Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything [Critchley]
Analytic philosophy has much higher standards of thinking than continental philosophy [Williamson]
Deleuze relies on Spinoza (immanence), Bergson (duration), and difference (Nietzsche) [May]