Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a fully updated and expanded new edition of An Introduction to Continental Philosophy, first published in 1996. It provides a clear, concise and readable introduction to philosophy in the continental tradition.
Trade Review"West's ability as a story teller makes this a thoroughly interesting read regardless of one's degree of expertise in the subject. It is an exemplary introduction."
Sociological Review
"Thoughtful, thoroughly researched, well written, Continental Philosophy invites students and scholars to
engage in a rich and interesting tradition."
Teaching Philosophy
"This second edition does more than introduce continental philosophy; it makes it interesting and intriguing."
Philip Pettit, Princeton University
"David West's interpretations of the major figures of continental philosophy are succinct and insightful. He reads continental philosophy as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism and as a potential foundation for emancipatory politics. This edition includes a courageous critique of several important recent figures: Agamben, ?i?ek and Badiou. West provides an illuminating and thorough introduction to the continental tradition."
William R. Schroeder, University of Illinois
Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition.
Preface to the First Edition.
1 Introduction: What is Continental Philosophy?
2 Modernity, Enlightenment and their Continental Critics.
From Modernity to Enlightenment.
The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
Continental Critics of Enlightenment.
The Hegelian Synthesis.
3 Dialectics of Emancipation: Marx, the Frankfurt School and Habermas.
Feuerbach, Marx and Marxism.
The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School.
Habermas and the Renewal of Critical Theory.
4 Historicism, Hermeneutics and Phenomenology.
Dilthey, Philosophy of Life and Hermeneutics.
Husserl and Phenomenology.
Heidegger's Phenomenology of Being.
Gadamer and the Universality of Hermeneutics.
The Phenomenology of Political Action ÐHannah Arendt.
5 Beyond Theory: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Existentialism.
Søren Kierkegaard.
Friedrich Nietzsche.
Jean-Paul Sartre and French Existentialism.
6 Beyond the Subject: Structuralism and Poststructuralism.
Decentring the Subject.
The Break with Humanism.
Foucault's Genealogy of the Subject.
Derrida's Deconstruction of Western Metaphysics.
7 Postmodernism.
Varieties of Postmodernism.
Philosophical Critique of Enlightenment and Modernity Postmodernity as a Stage of Western Society.
Politics of Difference and Ethics of the Other.
8 Radical Departures.
After the End of History.
The Return of the Political - Agamben, Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe
Slavoj Žižek - The Fractious Subject of Ideology.
In the Event of Alain Badiou.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.
