Contemporary Continental Philosophy

by D'Amico, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780813332215
• ISBN10: 0813332214
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780429981012
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Contemporary Continental Philosophysteps back from current debates comparing Continental and analytic philosophy and carefully, yet critically outlines the tradition's main philosophical views on epistemology and ontology. Forgoing obscure paraphrases, D'Amico provides a detailed, clear account and assessment of the tradition from its founding by Husserl and Heidegger to its challenge by Derrida and Foucault. Though intended as a survey of this tradition throughout the twentieth century, this study's focus is on the philosophical problems which gave it birth and even now continue to shape it.The book reexamines Husserl as an early critic of epistemological naturalism whose grasp of the philosophical importance of the theory of meaning was largely ignored. Heidegger's contrasting effort to revive ontology is examined in terms of his distinction between ontic and ontological questions. In contrast with many earlier studies, the author outlines confusions engendered by the misappropriation of the distinct philosophical agendas of Husserl and Heidegger by such famous figures as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. The book is also original in its emphasis on how social externalism in epistemology, inspired by Karl Mannheim, influenced this tradition's structuralist and Marxist phases. The philosophical defenses of a theory of interpretation by Gadamer and Habermas are closely examined and assessed and the study concludes with a a probing yet balanced account of Foucault and Derrida as critics of philosophical autonomy. The book concludes by reassessing this century-long divide between the analytic and Continental traditions and its implication for the future of philosophy.

Author Biography

Robert D’Amico teaches philosophy at the University of Florida. He is also the author of Historicism and Knowledge (1989).

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
1 Phenomenology	1	(48)
The Inextinguishable Task	3	(8)
Against Born Dogmatists	11	(12)
Transcendental Interiority	23	(4)
The European Crisis	27	(6)
Critical Friendship and Enmity	33	(2)
French Phenomenology	35	(6)
No Raison d'Etre?	41	(2)
Notes	43	(4)
Suggested Readings	47	(1)
Bibliography	47	(2)
2 Ontology	49	(62)
Being, Not Beings	53	(4)
Always, We Ourselves	57	(7)
Existential Analysis	64	(4)
Other Minds	68	(2)
Understanding	70	(2)
Authenticity and Inauthenticity	72	(3)
Back to the Things Themselves	75	(3)
Nonnaturalistic Time	78	(4)
A Criticism	82	(3)
Popular Existentialism	85	(16)
The Last Word	101	(3)
Notes	104	(4)
Suggested Readings	108	(1)
Bibliography	109	(2)
3 Social Epistemology	111	(40)
Epistemology as Sociology	112	(9)
Social Ontology	121	(8)
"Against the Observer, the Native,"	129	(8)
Scientific Holism	137	(5)
How to Read	142	(3)
Notes	145	(3)
Suggested Readings	148	(1)
Bibliography	149	(2)
4 Interpretation	151	(48)
Against Method	156	(5)
Bridge to Realities	161	(5)
Holding True	166	(7)
Vicious and Virtuous Circles	173	(5)
Nothing if Not Critical	178	(3)
In Defense of a Method	181	(5)
Transcendental Arguments	186	(8)
Notes	194	(3)
Suggested Readings	197	(1)
Bibliography	198	(1)
5 The New Sophists	199	(50)
Clumsy Butchers	203	(10)
The Encoded Eye	213	(8)
The Fabric of Sentences	221	(9)
Destruction	230	(12)
Notes	242	(4)
Suggested Readings	246	(1)
Bibliography	247	(2)
Conclusion	249	(8)
Index	257