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Single Idea 6845

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

Full Idea

In continental philosophy there is a pernicious tendency to explain everything in terms of 'one big thing', such as the 'death drive' (Freud), 'being' (Heidegger), 'the real' (Lacan), 'power' (Foucault), 'the other' (Levinas), or 'différance' (Derrida).

Gist of Idea

Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything

Source

Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.197)

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.197

A Reaction

From a fan of this type of philosophy, this is a refreshing remark, because if pinpoints a very off-putting feature. Each of these 'big things' should be up for question, not offered as axiomatic assumptions that explain everything else.

The 24 ideas from Simon Critchley

7075 To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being [Critchley]
7067 Food first, then ethics [Critchley]
7068 If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism [Critchley]
7069 The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx [Critchley]
20446 Philosophy begins in disappointment, notably in religion and politics [Critchley]
20448 Phenomenology uncovers and redescribes the pre-theoretical layer of life [Critchley]
20449 Science gives us an excessively theoretical view of life [Critchley]
20447 The problems is not justifying ethics, but motivating it. Why should a self seek its good? [Critchley]
20450 The state, law, bureaucracy and capital are limitations on life, so I prefer federalist anarchism [Critchley]
20451 Belief that humans are wicked leads to authoritarian politics [Critchley]
20452 Anarchism used to be libertarian (especially for sexuality), but now concerns responsibility [Critchley]
20454 Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley]
20455 Philosophy really got started as the rival mode of discourse to tragedy [Critchley]
20456 Interesting art is always organised around ethical demands [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]
6843 Perceiving meaninglessness is an achievement, which can transform daily life [Critchley]
6844 Scientism is the view that everything can be explained causally through scientific method [Critchley]
6845 Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything [Critchley]
6846 Phenomenology is a technique of redescription which clarifies our social world [Critchley]
6847 Humour can give a phenomenological account of existence, and point to change [Critchley]
6848 Humour is practically enacted philosophy [Critchley]