Taking Sides: Anglophone vs Continental Philosophy

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Someone on Team Groke sent me a big link all about this.

― Tom, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What the hell is Origin of Species doing in there?

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I read that too and it's a bit of a strange list.How can Darwin be number 3? I quite liked the response of the philosopher who told scientists to sod off though.

― Jonnie, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Honderich seems to get a bit het up about this sort of thing. His comments about science seems a bit odd given the following, said in reaction to the philosophers poll linked off that page:

...English and American philosophy aspires to the condition of science. French philosophy, one thinks of picking up an idea and running with it, possibly into a nearby brick wall or over a local cliff.

Heh.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like some French thought, but most of it's a bit of a headache and - like a stuffy old Saxon - I wish they'd get to the point.

There was a story about a frantically worried French statesman who, responding to an idea at a diplomatic meeting, said: 'Yes, of course it works in practice, but will it work in theory?'

Having said that Sartre, Camus, Barthes = classic.

So, like a true philosopher, I see the pros and cons in both arguments so clearly that I reserve judgement. My conclusion has been 'perpetually deferred' :-)

― Guillaume McKenzie@Gauloise.com, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sartre, Camus, Foucault and many twentieth century Frenchies are exceptional writers but rotten philosophers.

― Jonnie, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i have tried over and over again to read BG&E . I have failed

― anthony, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My main man Spinoza didn't make the top ten.

― jel, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe that's because of the cherem.

― the amsterdam mahamad, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Calling "The Origin of Species" a work of western philosophy is disrespectful to both science and philosphy. I doubt any of the people who voted for it have even read it. What about the Bible?

― Kris, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There wasn't any central plot and it fell apart in the middle, so it was excluded.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

or Eramsus , he is my main man , in praise of folly, best book evah !

― anthony, Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He's from my parts. He's *da man.* I am currently reading Bertrand Russell's book on philosophy. Quite interesting but I don't think I'll be able finish it this century.

― nathalie, Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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Nietzsche therefore deserves the epithet the philosopher philosophers most sharply disagre on.

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My nigga! He does it again! :) For the rest, yr typical safe, boring, shite list. re: Russell's book (History of Philosophy, yes?), nice read but gets hilariously pedantic towards the end.

― Omar, Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

continent every time, foucault, derrida and nietsche are my holy trinity.

― Geoff, Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, Omar, the 800 page tome. BLERGH. Why the hell do I delude myself each time? I should stick with Bukowski and the like. Simple, yet hip. ;-)

― nathalie, Saturday, 8 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five months pass...

What's wrong with considering Origin of Species "philosophy" (among other things)? Is it insufficiently vacuous? It certainly had an effect on philosophy, and eliminated from biology the idea that you could explain a cause by its effect, and helped inspire Thomas Kuhn to try to eliminate it from the philosophy of science and the history of science. (Maybe I'm just kidding. Or pretentious. I've never actually read Origin.)

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

so frank: tell me more abt that kuhn fella ;-)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 1 June 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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