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Single Idea 6836

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

Full Idea

If reason must criticise itself (in Kant) how does one avoid total scepticism? In my view, the problem that has animated the continental tradition since Jacobi (early 19th cent) is the threat of nihilism.

Clarification

'Nihilism' is loss of all serious beliefs

Gist of Idea

Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason

Source

Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.188)

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.188

A Reaction

As an outsider to 'continental' philosophy, this is the most illuminating remark I have read about it. It is not only a plausible account of the movement, but also a very worth aim, which should be taken seriously by analytical philosophers.

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

21984 We must break up the rigidity that our understanding has imposed [Hegel]
22082 Truth does not appear by asserting reasons and then counter-reasons [Hegel]
6904 Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter [Feuerbach]
6931 Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects [Feuerbach]
21841 We must create new words, and treat them as normal, and as if designating real things. [Deleuze]
21901 'Difference' refers to that which eludes capture [Deleuze, by May]
7423 Philosophy and politics are fundamentally linked [Foucault]
6841 Some continental philosophers are relativists - Baudrillard, for example [Baudrillard, by Critchley]
8223 The plague of philosophy is those who criticise without creating, and defend dead concepts [Deleuze/Guattari]
8988 Two marxist ideas have dominated in France: base and superstructure, and ideology [Scruton]
7075 To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being [Critchley]
7069 The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx [Critchley]
6835 German idealism aimed to find a unifying principle for Kant's various dualisms [Critchley]
6837 Since Hegel, continental philosophy has been linked with social and historical enquiry. [Critchley]
6836 Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason [Critchley]
6838 Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation [Critchley]
6845 Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything [Critchley]
6859 Analytic philosophy has much higher standards of thinking than continental philosophy [Williamson]
21900 Deleuze relies on Spinoza (immanence), Bergson (duration), and difference (Nietzsche) [May]