Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Interview with Baggini and Stangroom' and 'Word and Object'

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6 ideas

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

6835	German idealism aimed to find a unifying principle for Kant's various dualisms [Critchley]
	Full Idea: In his Third Critique Kant established a series of dualisms (pure/practical reason, nature/freedom, epistemology/ethics) but failed to provide a unifying principle; German idealism can be seen as an attempt to provide this principle.
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.187)
	A reaction: He cites 'subject', 'spirit', 'art', 'will to power', 'praxis' and 'being' as candidates. This is a helpful overview for someone struggling to get to grips with that tradition.

6837	Since Hegel, continental philosophy has been linked with social and historical enquiry. [Critchley]
	Full Idea: In continental philosophy from Hegel onwards, systematic philosophical questions have to be linked to socio-historical enquiry, and the distinctions between philosophy, history and society begin to fall apart.
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.188)
	A reaction: I have a strong sales resistance to this view of philosophy, just as I would if it was said about mathematics. It seems to imply a bogus view that history exhibits direction and purpose (the 'Whig' view). There are pure reasons among the prejudices.

6836	Continental philosophy fights the threatened nihilism in the critique of reason [Critchley]
	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.
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], 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.

6838	Continental philosophy is based on critique, praxis and emancipation [Critchley]
	Full Idea: The basic map of the continental tradition can be summarised in three terms: critique, praxis and emancipation.
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], 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.

6845	Continental philosophy has a bad tendency to offer 'one big thing' to explain everything [Critchley]
	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).
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], 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.

1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 2. Phenomenology

6846	Phenomenology is a technique of redescription which clarifies our social world [Critchley]
	Full Idea: Phenomenology (as in the later Husserl) is for me a way of assembling reminders which clarify the social world in which we exist; it is a technique of redescription.
	From: Simon Critchley (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.198)
	A reaction: I'm not sure if I can identify with this as a target for philosophy, but it is interesting and sound worthy of effort. Critchley offers this as the best strand in 'continental' philosophy, rather than the big explanatory ideas.