Philosophers as extremists *snort*

[thotmonster]

So I'm surfing Blackwell's Companions to Philosophy books on amazon.com, idly pondering a purchase of the Companion to Continental Philosophy or some such. Of the half dozen BCPs I now own, most are almost misleadingly conservative in what they cover, who they cover, and even who they have covering it (e.g., almost no women contributors, even in the volumes on Biothics and P of Education, except for the Companion to Feminist Philosophy, where it's all women--as though "feminism" and "women's issues" are the same. Pah).

Thus I find my Blackwell "companions" exactly like those friends whose views I consult precisely because they'll tell me what "everybody knows" to be the case, in just the tone of voice that provokes me to go as far beyond it as possible.

But just to see what's what, I click on the Blackwell's Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism and note that "customers who purchased this book have also bought":

1. Extremist Groups - Information for Students
   
2. Transcendental Heidegger
   
3. Heidegger's Being and Time: Critical Essays
   
4. Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources

Philosophy, even existentialist philosophy, as extremism? *snort* Even if this were ever true, I'm not seeing it in any philosophy dept I know.