A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century - Softcover

Delacampagne, Christian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801868149 ISBN 13: 9780801868146

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, Christian Delacampagne reviews the discipline's divergent and dramatic course and shows that its greatest figures, even the most unworldly among them, were deeply affected by events of their time. From Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose famous Tractatus was actually composed in the trenches during World War I, to Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger―one who found himself barred from public life with Hitler's coming to power, the other a member of the Nazi party who later refused to repudiate German war crimes. From Bertrand Russell, whose lifelong pacifism led him to turn from logic and mathematics to social and moral questions, and Jean-Paul Sartre, who made philosophy an occasion for direct and personal political engagement, to Rudolf Carnap, a committed socialist, and Karl Popper, a resolute opponent of Communism. From the Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School to the contemporary work of philosophers as variously minded as Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, and Hilary Putnam. The thinking of these philosophers, and scores of others, cannot be understood without being placed in the context of the times in which they lived.

About this title

From the Publisher

"A richly detailed picture of the works of philosophy . . . [Delacampagne] proves to be an enlivening guide to the labyrinth of recent philosophical thought . . . He lucidly outlines the convergence and divergence of lines of thought in the bewildering maze of modern intellectual life."—Neal Leavitt, Boston Book Review

"The emphasis in the title of Delacampagne's volume should be on the preposition "in" since this is not just a history of twentieth-century philosophy but a history that tries to take some account of the cultural and political setting as well as the specific content of what various philosophers and philosophical movements have said during this period."—David Pellauer, DePaul University, editor of Philosophy Today

About the Author

Christian Delacampagne is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has served as director of the French Institutes in Barcelona, Cairo, Madrid, and Tel-Aviv and, more recently, as the cultural and scientific attaché of the French Embassy in Boston. He presently teaches in the Department of French and Italian at Connecticut College, in New London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0801868149
• ISBN 13: 9780801868146
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352