Ideas from 'Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro' by Simon Critchley [2001], by Theme Structure

[found in 'Continental Philosophy - Very Short Intro' by Critchley,Simon [OUP 2001,0-19-285359-7]].

green numbers give full details    |     back to texts     |     unexpand these ideas

---

1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism

7068	If infatuation with science leads to bad scientism, its rejection leads to obscurantism

			Full Idea: If what is mistaken in much contemporary philosophy is its infatuation with science, which leads to scientism, then the equally mistaken rejection of science leads to obscurantism.
			From: Simon Critchley (Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro [2001], Ch.1)
			A reaction: Clearly a balance has to be struck. I take philosophy to be a quite separate discipline from science, but it is crucial that philosophy respects the physical facts, and scientists are the experts there. Scientists are philosophers' most valued servants.

1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 1. Continental Philosophy

7075	To meet the division in our life, try the Subject, Nature, Spirit, Will, Power, Praxis, Unconscious, or Being

			Full Idea: Against the Kantian division of a priori and empirical, Fichte offered activity of the subject, Schelling offered natural force, Hegel offered Spirit, Schopenhauer the Will, Nietzsche power, Marx praxis, Freud the unconscious, and Heidegger offered Being.
			From: Simon Critchley (Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro [2001])
			A reaction: The whole of Continental Philosophy summarised in a sentence. Fichte and Schopenhauer seem to point to existentialism, Schelling gives evolutionary teleology, Marx abandons philosophy, the others are up the creek.

7069	The French keep returning, to Hegel or Nietzsche or Marx

			Full Idea: French philosophy since the 1930s might be described as a series of returns: to Hegel (in Kojève and early Sartre), to Nietzsche (in Foucault and Deleuze), or to Marx (in Althusser).
			From: Simon Critchley (Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro [2001], Ch.2)
			A reaction: An interesting map. The question might be why they return to those three, rather than (say) Hume or Leibniz. If the choice of which one you return to a matter of 'taste' (as Nietzsche would have it)?

22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value

7067	Food first, then ethics

			Full Idea: Food first, then ethics.
			From: Simon Critchley (Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro [2001], 8857)
			A reaction: This is not a dismissal of philosophy, but a key fact which ethical philosophers must face up to. See Mr Doolittle's speech in Shaw's 'Pygmalion. It connects to the debate c.1610 about whether one is entitled to grab someone's plank to avoid drowning.