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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

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Continental Philosophy: possible origins

The beginning of Continental Philosophy? But is it a beginning? What is it to name what has already become a name? ‘Continental Philosophy’ as philosophy has now come into its own – so why not give it a name and an avenue for expression? To name continental philosophy is to distinguish it from what it is not, to articulate its difference. It is not analytic philosophy; it is not process philosophy; it is not ancient philosophy, etc. This is not to say that it is opposed to other philosophies. Indeed not. Yet continental philosophy calls out for a space of its own. It already occupies such a space. In occupying a space of its own, continental philosophy claims an identity. It therefore seems to be a philosophy. But is it just another philosophy? Our first volume poses this question, while at the same time asking whether continental philosophy is itself philosophy in the pure, centered, self-defining sense. What is philosophy’s relation to non-philosophy as posed by continental philosophy? Our enterprise begins with this question, a question that has long awaited an answer.

Continental Philosophy – we shall call it CP – recognizes that traditions such as phenomenology, existentialism, structuralism, semiology, post-structuralism, hermeneutics, critical theory, deconstruction, archaeology, genealogy, libidinal economy, and post-modernism have undoubtedly established distinct terrains of their own. Nevertheless their collective philosophical practices can collectively be called ‘continental’. These terrains are not exclusive – some have not yet been fully defined. Continental philosophy as a style of philosophizing has not closed itself off. In fact, continental philosophy operates in terms of an orientation toward openness. Just as continental philosophy remains open to new formulations, new definitions, new orientations, Continental Philosophy shall not be limited by its own traditions. We seek to operate in terms of the tradition but not be bound by it. CP acknowledges and assesses the shifting boundaries, foundations, and limits of established philosophical territories. Furthermore, CP aims to establish new directions and address crucial issues that set the pace for the practice of continental philosophy.

Continental Philosophy stresses current work drawing upon philosophical texts and traditions originating on European grounds (since Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche). However, the principal focus of the series is on the Anglo-American context and its own philosophical activities, commitments, and concerns. Thus all articles will be written in English – only occasionally will translations be included. Contributions are addressed to an English-speaking audience and will be preoccupied with issues that arise for and out of that audience. Although different articles may employ different strategies, each volume will be oriented toward a chief concern in the Anglo-American philosophical community. In this respect our concerns are actively political. CP will demonstrate that philosophy is broader than – and in many cases other than – the ways it is commonly construed, and that there is a richness and profundity to a whole domain of philosophy that has for a long time operated outside the self-proclaimed mainstream. And yet as time has already shown, continental philosophy has come to achieve widespread expression, teaching, and effects throughout North American and British university settings. Continental philosophy is philosophy, academic, professional, and personal. It has sparked the minds of students, given new life to the meaning of philosophy in the curriculum, and offered a way out of the doldrums that philosophy has accomplished for itself in the past several decades. Continental philosophy is the new wave. It has embraced the relation between philosophy and other discourses as a real relation and not simply a detached observer reflection, analysis of propositions, or exercise in argumentation. Consequently, continental philosophy has become a vital and active force in Anglo-American philosophy today.

[...]

Continental Philosophy is a series of books that are not books, a journal that is not quite a journal, a collection of essays that is not simply a collection of essays. We call this series Continental Philosophy. However, we are not as concerned to propose a name as to have an effect, to expand the space for writing, to write where writing is called for. We understand CP to be a multifaceted set of inscriptions – each set taking up a topic, elaborating its dimensions, pushing it toward its limits – all within the multiplicity that characterizes contemporary continental philosophy.

Continental philosophy is no longer a unified scientific program as Husserl had set forth. It can no longer simply inquire about perception as if it were a phenomenon, or an entity, or a wall that makes noise. Continental philosophy cannot still think of structures, frameworks, centers as if they were the only concern. With its communicative competences, its textual readings, its liminal meditations, its libidinal economies, continental philosophy scans the surfaces of things in order to go deeper into their being. Continental philosophy is not afraid of its own methodologies or its stylistic flourishes. Continental philosophy is not afraid to say what it means, to have something to say in all domains of human endeavor, artistic, scientific, textual, political, or otherwise. Continental philosophy wants to understand, wants to interpret, to make sense, to know, to be able to act – it is not afraid to say so; it should have no phobias about its practices. Often continental philosophy declines to make political moves that will bring it hegemony on the academic scene – there is too much to explore, to ask about, to understand to seek office for the sake of control, for the sake of the office, for the sake of power. At the same time, office, control, power, and understanding are all vital concerns for continental thinkers. Yet to omit the political is to omit the activity. And hence these polygrams, these volumes, these sets of essays, are eminently contemporary, persistently in the vanguard of philosophical thinking, unabashedly seeking to say and write what demands to be said, what demands to be written. The time for this new phase in continental philosophy has come into its own; with this inaugural volume Continental Philosophy begins to come into its own.

Hugh J. Silverman, Editor.

— Hugh J. Silverman, ‘Introduction’, in Continental Philosophy I: Philosophy and Non-Philosophy Since Merleau-Ponty, ed. by Hugh J. Silverman (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), pp. 1-7 (pps. 1-2, 6-7).

Despite this, or perhaps as a result, they have a friendly character unequalled anywhere