As far as very short introductions are concerned, this book is crappy. Oh it's short alright, but it sure isn't introductory. To enjoy it you would require some preliminary knowledge of philosophy, because this author is prone to name-dropping not just philosophers, but also major philosophical arguments and rivalries. I suspect that anyone who doesn't already know a little about continental philosophy will get so bored that they'll likely abandon the book after two or three chapters.Another pro...

Just as I expected, it all starts with Kant.Critchley faced a damned difficult task, but, as with so many of the authors of these marvelous Oxford Press A Very Short Introduction series, he has managed to turn his 127 page allotment into a reasonable exposition upon what the murkily-etched Continental Philosophy is all about. While ever at pains to point out how unsound both geographically and methodologically the allusions to a European-based system of thinking are (and as opposed to a similarl...

Chapter 1: The Gap between Knowledge and WisdomChapter 2: Origins of Continental Philosophy: How to get from Kant to German IdealismChapter 3: Spectacles and Eyes to See With: Two cultures in philosophyChapter 4: Can Philosophy Change the World? Critique, praxis, emancipationChapter 5: What is to be done? How to respond to nihilismChapter 6: A Case Study in Misunderstanding: Heidegger and CarnapChapter 7: Scientism versus Obscurantism: Avoiding the traditional predicament in philosophyChapter 8:...

A good naive shortcut to catch the contradictions in philosophy's backstage.

What is Continental Philosophy? While we all grant it is a misleading question, it is a recognizable one. It is a tradition that reflects upon the solutions and problems of post-Kantian idealism through and up to Heidegger.Thesis: Contemporary philosophy faces the problem of the gap between wisdom and knowledge. Continental philosophy at its best tries to integrate theory and praxis. Indeed, at the heart of the book is Critchley’s argument that philosophy post-Kant worked around “praxis, critiqu...

The book is more of an historical perspective, focusing on the divide between "Continental" philosophy and "analytical" philosophy. Just to get it out there, analytical philosophy is like<\i> the philosophy around logic, knowledge, or "hard facts" while Continental philosophy tends to ask why things are or what these things mean. In the end, both names (analytical, Continental) are pretty bad titles, and the divide is more tribalism than any real categorization.That dichotomy is echoed throughou...

There came a point last summer when after reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra I decided that I wanted to go to back to school (in search for an academic community and a Masters or a Phd). I knew that I did not want to continue studying early Christianity in a religious studies department because I do not want to be put into the theologian pigeonhole. I remembered that one of my favorite professors, Dr. Luca D'Isanto, received his MA in Continental Philosophy from UVA. Dr. D'Isanto's classes focused o...

Finally finished-- you can see my initial review below, which probably still stands fairly well. I probably should have given it one more star, but I thought he short-changed Continental philosophy at the end with a dismissive mention of concepts such as the Real in Lacan which he apparently thinks are obscurantist causal explanations-- but then again I think this is a big part of the criticism of many of these schools of thought, so I'll withhold judgement for now. The book as a whole was a tad...

I came here to understand the unifying thread and evolutionary trail of a particular brand of ideas that was coherent enough to become its own subgenre of philosophy. Instead I got a treatise on how this coherence is actually an arbitrary division comparing apples to peanuts, people to numbers, and numbers to apples, and how we’d do well instead to break down barriers between man such that apples, peanuts and Germans can all live together in peace and harmony. I still don't know what apples and

It's not really an introduction because the writer will bring you in the very depth of philosophical debates. But, that is philosophy does for living. Haha...It helped me alots, especially to understand the conflict between Analytic Philosophy and Continental Philosophy where all of these cultures came with same root, which is Immanuel Kant in German. And then, it evolved by dispute between Fichte, Hamman, and Jacobi. Or, Benthamites-scientism-logical positivism and Coleridgian-hermeneutic-obscu...

A great introduction book. Actually, I can say that the book is more than an introduction. It is a helpful source to make a reading schedule thanks to Critchley's detailed and well-planned work.In addition, the writer seperated chapters with regard to the discussions throughout the history of philosophy, not regard to the names of famous guys. So, this is a preferable way up to me 'cause it gives the idea, philosophy consists of problems not the names, to the reader.

This essay about the analytic-continental divide in contemporary philosophy was pleasant to read and confirmed for me that I should try to read some continental philosophy myself.Critchley begins by pointing out the tendency in, on the one hand, analytic philosophy toward epistemology and science, and, on the other hand, continental philosophy toward human existence and the meaning of life. There is a gap between knowledge and wisdom, and Critchley argues that ‘the attempt to bridge that gap sho...

I found this an extremely useful introduction to the history and major ideas within "continental" philosophy. Some ideas I found helpful:- that continental philosophy is best seen as a network of texts in dialogue with one another, rather than addressing a set of problems directly- the idea of revolutionary tradition, or forcing a crisis, based on re-activating a heritage which has hardened and become habitual- that Nietzsche saw nihilism as generated by a contradiction within Christian/Platonic...

Modern technology, and especially artificial intelligence, has reignited fundamental debates regarding consciousness, being, nothingness, language, metaphysics, meaning - essentially every single philosophical question ever posed becomes actualized with this incredible technology. Thus, everyone who has dabbled in any of these discourses are likely to have become more or less aware of a certain split in the approach of thinking itself. This is a classical dualism, reflected in basically every le...

I don't know if you can call this book a very short INTRODUCTION. What he does very well is vowing the histroy of ideas neetly together. Like, AFTER you hopefully have gotten acquainted with the differnt philosophers he speaks of.A good job of both sorting the different streams of thought, and of arguing the case for mutual understanding and integration. Not just an informing book, but a philosophical work in it self that sparks curiosity. I read this book short after finishing "the birth of tra...

Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions #43), Simon CritchleyIn this enlightening new Very Short Introduction, Simon Critchley shows us that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida...

The running theme of logic vs. humanity also contrasts analytic and Continental philosophy. Critchley's purpose here is to introduce us to an eclectic trend that asks what wisdom is, and which stresses the human purposes of philosophy. From Kant to the 20th century French thinkers, the book covers the major trends of the past 200 years. Included in this period are many distinct ideas:– The difference between knowledge and wisdom– Kant and German Idealism– Critique, praxis, emancipation– Nihilism...

Good read, though the book hardly delves into continental thinking. A better title might be "How Continental and Analytic Philosophical Traditions View One Another".

Knowledge And Wisdom In Contemporary PhilosophySimon Critchely's little book on "Continental Philosophy" (2001) for Oxford University Press' "Very Short Introduction" series delivers less than its title and more. From the title, I assumed that Critchley would offer a discussion of various Continental thinker, briefly explaining their ideas and exploring their similarities and differences from each other. Critchley does in fact do some of this, but it is not the focus of his study. In that sense,...

As a literature student with a smattering of philosophical reading under my belt, I found this text enormously helpful in providing context and synthesizing trends in the philosophical literature I have read. It was interesting to note that virtually all of the philosophers I have encountered in my literary studies are Continental-this tex helped me understand some of the reasons why. Critchley's discussion of the need for a more balanced relationship between the analytic and Continental schools...