Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought
Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought
Edited by Christopher John Murray
Published by Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004
This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 713 pages including the index and the notes on the contributors, plus a preface, alphabetical and thematic lists of entries, and a chronology.
The preface discusses some of the general features and themes of modern French thought. There is a paragraph on French responses to German philosophers and sociologists; there is a paragraph on French thinkers' reappraisal of Western Enlightenment values and ideas; and a paragraph on French intellectuals' responses to modernity and developments in modern history and society. The preface also makes clear that "French thought" includes the writings of Francophone intellectuals outside of France, naming some important ones.
Here are an important couple of sentences toward the end of the preface:
"Because some recent French writers are notorious for the difficulty of their style, which is usually a way of trying to avoid easy assimilation in the dominant forms of understanding, contributors were asked to pay close attention to clarity of exposition. This is not an attempt, however, to reduce complex, challenging, and far-reaching theories to simple, predigested summaries; concerns about the subtle power of dominant ideologies, and also about the limits of the sayable, are important. The aim, rather, as with any such project, is to encourage both student and lay reader to turn to the works in question and engage directly with the authors' ideas and strategies."
It's good that the editor addressed the question of writing style in that way, but I can't help thinking he's not being completely honest in saying that the aim of the book is to encourage readers to go directly to the original works. He must know that when people use reference books about intellectuals who are notoriously difficult to read, they really do want the authors' difficult ideas reduced to simple, predigested summaries, so that they can come away quickly with something they need. I think he is actually trying to apologize for the book.
The vast majority of the entries are for individual thinkers, but there are also entries for scholarly disciplines, historical subjects, time periods, themes, genres, and intellectual movements and theoretical points of view.
Entries are mostly satisfyingly long and detailed, and very interesting. The prose is definitely clear, and in my opinion doesn't do too much violence to the thinkers' ideas. Some close followers of a particular thinkers' work might find something important to quarrel with, but some other followers would most likely disagree.
This is a useful book for finding out some basic information about the ideas of modern French thinkers.
Edited by Christopher John Murray
Published by Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004
This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 713 pages including the index and the notes on the contributors, plus a preface, alphabetical and thematic lists of entries, and a chronology.
The preface discusses some of the general features and themes of modern French thought. There is a paragraph on French responses to German philosophers and sociologists; there is a paragraph on French thinkers' reappraisal of Western Enlightenment values and ideas; and a paragraph on French intellectuals' responses to modernity and developments in modern history and society. The preface also makes clear that "French thought" includes the writings of Francophone intellectuals outside of France, naming some important ones.
Here are an important couple of sentences toward the end of the preface:
"Because some recent French writers are notorious for the difficulty of their style, which is usually a way of trying to avoid easy assimilation in the dominant forms of understanding, contributors were asked to pay close attention to clarity of exposition. This is not an attempt, however, to reduce complex, challenging, and far-reaching theories to simple, predigested summaries; concerns about the subtle power of dominant ideologies, and also about the limits of the sayable, are important. The aim, rather, as with any such project, is to encourage both student and lay reader to turn to the works in question and engage directly with the authors' ideas and strategies."
It's good that the editor addressed the question of writing style in that way, but I can't help thinking he's not being completely honest in saying that the aim of the book is to encourage readers to go directly to the original works. He must know that when people use reference books about intellectuals who are notoriously difficult to read, they really do want the authors' difficult ideas reduced to simple, predigested summaries, so that they can come away quickly with something they need. I think he is actually trying to apologize for the book.
The vast majority of the entries are for individual thinkers, but there are also entries for scholarly disciplines, historical subjects, time periods, themes, genres, and intellectual movements and theoretical points of view.
Entries are mostly satisfyingly long and detailed, and very interesting. The prose is definitely clear, and in my opinion doesn't do too much violence to the thinkers' ideas. Some close followers of a particular thinkers' work might find something important to quarrel with, but some other followers would most likely disagree.
This is a useful book for finding out some basic information about the ideas of modern French thinkers.