Skip to main content
Read page text
page 6
What is Continental philosophy? “Continental philosophy” is a name for the desire to exist beyond the kind of comfortable self-delusion that Nietzsche satirizes. If we remain relatively stable and unchanging in terms of our thinking, then the very power of life for change and creation will become exhausted. What will result is a mere repetition of the same monotonous thing, a kind of living death. Continental philosophy is based on the intuition that thinking can oppose inertia and the intractable wish to stay the same. 4
page 7
“Continental philosophy” refers to a radical form of philosophy developed by European thinkers writing in the period from the 18th-century Enlightenment to the present day. The major thinkers in Continental philosophy originated from Germany and northern Europe, but by the mid-20th century this type of thinking had largely shifted to France. As Alain Badiou, one of France’s leading contemporary philosophers, observes: All of French philosophy is, in reality, a discussion of the German heritage with its formative moments in the 1930s and 1940s. Alain Badiou The close connection between French 20th-century philosophy and earlier German thought is shown by the fact that nearly every major French philosopher of this period has published books on the great German philosophers Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger. 5

Page Text

View plaintext

What is Continental philosophy?

“Continental philosophy” is a name for the desire to exist beyond the kind of comfortable self-delusion that Nietzsche satirizes. If we remain relatively stable and unchanging in terms of our thinking, then the very power of life for change and creation will become exhausted.

What will result is a mere repetition of the same monotonous thing, a kind of living death.

Continental philosophy is based on the intuition that thinking can oppose inertia and the intractable wish to stay the same.

4

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content