Continental Philosophy: An Introduction

This is a coherent and relatively thorough introduction to continental philosophy. As an introduction to what can be a convoluted and sometimes academically pretentious field, this is an excellent, authoritative, and unpretentiously straightforward survey. Of course, any survey of philosophy is going to reflect its author's interests. So to note that author David West clearly leans towards a political emphasis in this book is less a criticism than a statement of fact. However, on a personal level I would have preferred a slightly different approach.For example, speaking as someone whose interest in aesthetics and phenomenology entails an ongoing study of the writings of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, among others, I was somewhat disappointed that the originality and richness of Husserl's thought in his last years is not really conveyed. Relative to Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, both of whom studied with Husserl, Merleau-Ponty's work deserves considerable recognition in any book about continental philosophy. The author does include Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, but not in sufficient depth. I realize this is a personal assessment, and of course a reader must take into account that this book attempts to cover an enormous sweep of philosophy in a necessarily succinct and factually informative way.While speaking about Heidegger, however, I do think the author should have been more emphatic about Heidegger's turn to Nazism and not let him off the hook so easily. Heidegger's importance as a thinker should definiitely not be suppressed or ignored, in my opinion, and the author does a good job of covering the fundamentals of Heidegger's work in the context of this book, and he does mention Heidegger's turn to National Socialism, but doesn't say much about it.I think Heidegger's Being and Time is an important book that must be acknowledged as a turning point in the history of modern philosophy. However, while many of his ideas were and remain important, his actions in the world were sometimes cowardly. Heidegger's character and his impuissant ethics should not be ignored. Emmanuel Levinas, another student of Edmund Husserl, much admired Heidegger at first and wrote books about the brilliance of both Husserl's and Heidegger's work. Later while speaking about forgiveness after WWII, Levinas famously said "One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger." And of course, although Hannah Arndt and others escaped, the Nazi's murdered one of Husserl's former students, Edith Stein, at Auschwitz. Heidegger did not say, subsequent to WWII, that he had made an error of judgment or that Nazism was evil in its execution. Most people believe that even a word of apology from him would have allowed most of his former European colleagues to forgive him. In addition, recent studies have argued that Heidegger was definitely not a victim of circumstances.Similarly, Heidegger did not always give credit to his sources. A 1996 book by Rheinhard May, Heidegger's Hidden Sources: East-Asian Influences on his Work, shows detailed evidence that Heidegger "borrowed some of the major ideas of his philosophy - on occasion almost word for word - from German translations of Chinese Daoist and Zen Buddhist classics. The discovery of this astonishing appropriation of non-Western sources will have important consequences for future interpretations of Heidegger's work."At best, Martin Heidegger's ethical orientation was weak and self-serving, and given his refusal to apologize, his lack of integrity relative to joining the Nazi Party should never be excused. And I am speaking as someone who is obliged to study Heidegger's writings repeatedly and who admires the depth of Heidegger's philosophical work.Those reservations and caveats led me to give the very useful book, which I purchased and added to my bookshelf, a four-star rating.

great book to prime yourself with if you are interested in continental philosophy. Many intro philosophy texts ignore these figures and ideas. I read the oxford intro philosophy and there was no significant mention of Hegel. Before I read this book, I had already read works from many of the philosophers that are discussed in this intro. I found it useful in summarizing some of the important themes and ideas etc...

I bought this book because I was going to take one of David West's courses in ANU. It turns out to be far greater than any other textbooks that I have ever brought. David introduces some of the greatest thinkers in a thorough manner. The chapter about Frankfurt school in the book also provides some very good introduction to the Frankfurt school scholars (which helps me so much with my essay about their book "Dialectic of Enlightenment"). Not to mention that even when English is not my first language, I still find the book easy to read.

The first 200 pages are written with conviction. West is able to link a surprising number of writers around the theme of the deteriorating concept of the self. By comparison he is unable to illuminate Derrida or postmodernism. Last essays of the book are perfunctory.

I have nothing bad to say about this book. It is a solid introduction to the often-confusing world of continental philosophy. It lays out the basic themes of continental philosophy accessibly and surveys the major thinkers and their ideas. Remarkably clear, comprehensive, well-written and philosophically informed. Highly recommended.

West's book is a very good survey introduction to modern and postmodern thought. He does a fair job in explaining the thought of a great variety of modern thinkers and the way they have contributed to the thought of others and built upon yet others. I found his ability to link the influences of one thinker to another to be a particular strong point of the book, but also one that can cause some confusion as it can be difficult to follow his train of thought on some points, especially if one is very new to the subject being discussed. Overall, I recommend this book as a good introduction, though it requires at least a bit of background knowledge on the major movements of modern and postmodern philosophy.

There are better introductory surveys on the market, for instance Robert Solomon's "Continental Philosophy Since 1750". West's book is a rather idiosyncratic presentation. Husserl and Heidegger barely get a look-in, whilst there are several pages devoted to Habermas and Gadamer, who are dealt with before we get to Nietzsche. This is perhaps because West's emphasis is on the political and sociological rather than the epistemological or metaphysical. The last couple of chapters, on post-modernism and "radical departures", deteriorate into a list of writers with little attempt at explanation : we are told, for instance, that it would be "unwise... to attempt a succinct summary of [Badiou's] entire oeuvre" which is kind of what we've paid our money for. In summary, I would advise those wanting an introduction to the subject to read something else first.

This is a great book about a potentially daunting topic. The early chapters do a solid job of describing the historical and philosophical context- indispensable for this topic- while the final chapters deal with philosophers who are living and working at the moment- hard to find in most philosophy texts. The level of writing is perfect for an introductory uni course or non academic reader with a solid background in the history of ideas. I liked that the book and each section in it wasn't too long. There are a couple of ways i thought it could have been improved: recognition of the important role of artisitic/literary expression within Continental Philosophy and more recognition of feminist/environmental movements. If the book is intended to be used for classes, it would also be great if, in addition to the further reading at the end of each chapter, there was a short chapter summary and even some questions to guide discussion and reflection.