Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers

by Alan D. Schrift

This unique book addresses trends such as vitalism, neo-Kantianism, existentialism, Marxism and feminism, and provides concise biographies of the influential philosophers who shaped these movements, including entries on over ninety thinkers.

Genres: Philosophy

328 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sebastian Štros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid quick read for philosophy.
I like the format of philosophy blended with history which makes both more exciting.

There is perhaps too little detail, but the bird’s eye view is quite pleasant. You can really see the the key themes and questions. The book could be longer (it has 80ish pages) to cover more detail.

The two most insightful claims were the distinction of French philosophy into concept and subject oriented with Bergsson, Structuráisim and Poststructuralism on the one side and Existentialism, phenomenology on the other side.

The second claim was really the cleaning up of the difference between structuralism and postructuralism. Also the reading of these two schools reminded me how sad it is that continental philosophy took this turn away from relating to world/universe so present in existentialism, Kant, Hegel and Marx towards trifles about differences in words and utterances. Unfortunately, analytical philosophy too is occupied unnecessarily with words. As if understanding the universe was a thing of the past.

[Kamakana · Rating 3 out of 5]

221015: good general resource. as suggested, i read appendix one first, an orientation to French academic culture, which helps to situate the names, themes, people, referred to in brief thought-bios, later, third. before this, second, i read the intro that tries to outline the progression throughout the century, clarifies how varied French philosophy is, how some is not translated, some misinterpreted, of force, of influence, of certain thinkers most anglo philosophers do not know. i am most familiar with phenomenologists, now reading deleuze and through him bergson, so i read only bios of names heard of or read before (which is actually most of them). this resource has an extensive bibliography of all translated work by these names. i do not know if this is best as teaching text or just resource once you already know some of these themes, people, history...

[Nour Hamza · Rating 5 out of 5]

رحلة من أمتع وأثرى ما يكون.

[KeyForLocked · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 1 demonstrates how the education system profoundly influenced the shifts in intellectual trends, while the appendix provides an overview of the education system (which, in fact, should be in reverse order).

This approach overturns many seemingly plausible, yet actually unreasonable , impressions—philosophically natural, but unreasonable from the perspective of *knowledge dissemination*:

- The pre-World War I anti-idealist atmosphere.
- Nietzsche's revival was largely due to his inclusion in the bac reading list.
- Spinoza's status has always been linked to his high appearance rate in the bac.
- Hegel's brief period of popularity.
- Heidegger's full acceptance only came much later in France.
- Existentialism should first be positioned as Marcelian, and only secondly as phenomenological.
- The interrupted tradition of conceptualism...

[Teerabhat Ruensiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give it 4.5 stars but Goodreads won't allow it so I try to push it from 4.33 to 4.5 instead.

Concise and well told, this is a book that not only deal with thoughts and thinkers but also the society that facilitated them. However, Schrift seems to rush the fifth chapter, 'After Structuralism.' There is next to nothing about Derrida in this chapter which is surprising.