Ideas of Simon Critchley, by Theme

[British, fl. 1997, Prof at University of Essex; at Collège Internationale de Philosophie, Paris; New School Univ, NY]

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1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 2. Ancient Philosophy / b. Pre-Socratic philosophy
Philosophy really got started as the rival mode of discourse to tragedy
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / d. Philosophy as puzzles
Philosophy begins in disappointment, notably in religion and politics
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 8. Humour
Humour can give a phenomenological account of existence, and point to change
Humour is practically enacted philosophy
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism
Scientism is the view that everything can be explained causally through scientific method
Science gives us an excessively theoretical view of life
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 1. Continental Philosophy
To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being
The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx
German idealism aimed to find a unifying principle for Kant's various dualisms
Since Hegel, continental philosophy has been linked with social and historical enquiry.
Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason
Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation
Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 2. Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a technique of redescription which clarifies our social world
Phenomenology uncovers and redescribes the pre-theoretical layer of life
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
Interesting art is always organised around ethical demands
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / d. Ethical theory
The problems is not justifying ethics, but motivating it. Why should a self seek its good?
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value
Food first, then ethics
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 2. Nihilism
Perceiving meaninglessness is an achievement, which can transform daily life
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 2. Anarchism
The state, law, bureaucracy and capital are limitations on life, so I prefer federalist anarchism
Anarchism used to be libertarian (especially for sexuality), but now concerns responsibility
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 3. Conservatism
Belief that humans are wicked leads to authoritarian politics