Description
Book SynopsisContinental Philosophy: A Critical Approach is a lucid and wide-ranging introduction to the key figures and philosophical movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Includes chapters on Hegel; Marx and Western Marxism; Schopenhauer, Freud, and Bergson; Nietzsche; hermeneutics; phenomenology; existentialism; structuralism,; poststructuralism; French feminism; and postmodernism.
- Provides an ideal text or background resource for many different introductory and advanced courses on modern European philosophy.
Trade Review"Schroeder has a masterful command of the Continental tradition after Kant in European philosophy. He presents a comprehensive critical introduction to the philosophers who have shaped it, in an admirably clear and concise idiom that is readily accessible to academics, students, and general readers alike."
—Richard Schacht, University of Illinois
"This is an enormously impressive work. In the fashion of a panoramic mosaic, it assembles incisive analyses of the host of thinkers who comprise the 'Continental Tradition' in philosophy. Like no other book before it, it succeeds not only in helping us to understand the past, but also defines an array of future tasks that those working in this field will have to address."
—Frithjof Bergmann, University of Michigan
"Schroeder captures Continental philosophy's complex trajectory in clear and thoughtful language. Along the way, he offers provocative challenges to many of its central figures."
—Todd May, Clemson University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Preface x
Introduction 1
Descartes 1
Empiricism and the Rise of Science 4
Rationalism 7
The French Enlightenment 8
Challenges to the Enlightenment: Rousseau and Romanticism 11
Kant 16
Problems with Kant’s System 20
Fichte 23
Schelling 25
Hölderlin, Novalis, and Schiller 28
1 Hegel 30
Core Contributions 30
Life 32
The Phenomenology of Spirit 33
Philosophy of History 41
Politics and Ethics 44
Aesthetics 47
Philosophy of Mind 50
The Preface to the Phenomenologyas a Transition to the System 52
The System 55
Assessment 56
2 Marx And Western Marxism 60
Marx: Core Contributions 60
Life 61
Early Marx: Alienation and Capitalism 62
The Materialist Conception of History 66
Marx’s Analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production 71
Assessment 74
Western Marxism 76
Core Contributions 79
Gramsci 80
Horkheimer 83
Marcuse 85
Habermas 88
Assessment 91
Summary 92
3 Life-Philosophy And Subconscious Forces: Schopenhauer, Freud, And Bergson 93
Core Contributions 93
Schopenhauer 95
Freud 98
Bergson 107
Comparisons 111
Assessment 113
4 Nietzsche 117
Core Contributions 117
Life 119
On Reading Nietzsche 119
The Death of God and the Struggle Against Nihilism 120
Critique of Morality and Revaluation of Values 124
Constructive Ethics: Life-Affirmation, Power, Individuated Virtues 130
Art 132
History 134
Culture and Politics 136
Human Life and Consciousness 138
Epistemology and Metaphysics 140
New Philosophers 142
Comparisons 143
Assessment 146
5 Hermeneutics 149
Core Contributions 149
A Precursor: Schleiermacher 152
Dilthey 154
Heidegger 158
Gadamer 165
Betti 167
Comparisons 169
Assessment 170
6 Phenomenology 174
Introduction 174
Core Contributions 177
Some Types of Phenomenology 181
The Contributions of the Founder: Husserl 183
Concrete Phenomenological Studies 187
Phenomenology and Social Science 199
Other Applications 201
Comparisons 202
Assessment 203
7 Existentialism And Philosophical Anthropology 206
Core Contributions 206
Existentialism 207
Kierkegaard 209
Heidegger 215
Sartre 221
Philosophical Anthropology 228
Scheler 229
Goldstein 234
Gehlen 237
Assessment 240
8 Structuralism 243
Core Contributions 243
Saussure 245
Barthes 249
Lévi-Strauss 253
Lacan 257
Althusser 260
Barthes’s Transcendence of Structuralism 263
Assessment 264
9 Philosophies Of Dispersion 267
Introduction 267
Core Contributions 268
Foucault 271
Derrida 280
Deleuze 287
Assessment 291
10 French Feminist Philosophy 297
Core Contributions 297
De Beauvoir 299
Kristeva 305
Irigaray 310
Le Doeuff 315
Comparisons 319
Assessment 320
11 Postmodernism 323
Some Distinctions 323
Core Contributions 325
Lyotard 327
Baudrillard 332
Assessment 341
Conclusions 345
Strengths and Achievements 345
Decision-points 351
Specific Field Contributions 357
Dispersionist Challenges to the Tradition: A Response 363
Notes 374
Bibliography 403
Index 429
