Bridging the Gap

Posted on February 20, 2012
Filed Under Philosophy | 3 Comments

The New York Times has an excellent editorial this weekend, Bridging the Analytic – Continental Divide. I know lots of people have talked about this one, but I really liked it. I’m not sure I fully agree on reading only secondary literature of major Continental thinkers but I agree that thinking through Continental philosophy with Analytic clarity and precision can be amazingly helpful. I think there are reasons Continental philosophy has been more literary. However more frequently than not the style is unnecessary. Further I’m far less patient with the style than I was in my 20′s.

There have started to be quite a few books that merge the two. I have several books on Externalism that focus on Continental figures like Sartre or Heidegger but do so in the style of Analytic Philosophy. (They also typically bring in notable Analytic figures) Likewise there are books like Wheeler’s Deconstruction as Analytic Philosophy that bridge the two in interesting ways. (And that book is more than 10 years old now)

I also like the authors recognition there are pretty difficult Analytic philosophers. For instance I love reading Donald Davidson and he’s made me think a lot. But every time I go through his works I just know I’m getting him wrong. (And people in the comments are kind enough to point out where I get him wrong)

Related posts:

  1. Analytics, Continentals and History of Philosophy
  2. Analytic Philosophy History
  3. Party Line Continentals
  4. Davidson on Analytic Philosophy
  5. Heidegger, Hume and neo-Kantism
  6. Davidson: The Myth of the Subjective 1

Comments

3 Responses to “Bridging the Gap”

I thought that it was well done too.

Thanks for the pointer. It’s encouraging to see that there are others engaged in a “technical” analytic digestion of concepts that, for too long, remain the realm of just verbal understanding. More so that their is an LDS audience for such.

I’m currently reading e. t. Jaynes’ probability theory and I’m finding a lot of what I’ve been looking for: the deconstruction of “common sense”.

I liked Harman’s comments on the piece: http://doctorzamalek2.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/gary-gutting-on-the-analyticcontinental-divide/

Especially Brentano’s foreshadowing of the divide over a century ago.

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