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

Comments

Existential Extremism

[gamoonbat]

I suppose that there may be a connection there, although I would have thought it more for Nietzsche than for Heidegger. Existential ideas are compatible with individual actions that defy a popular or "democratic" course. Heidegger reconciled himself with the over-reaching Nazi government, though.

I followed you here from the discussion on academics_anon.

Re: Existential Extremism

[thotmonster]

Of course, I'm making a sweeping generalization. It just made me chuckle. When I think of existentialists, I flash on all those photos of Sartre and his disciples parked in cafes sipping coffee (or wine), cigarettes and pipes wreathing them in smoke while they bat around dense analyses of what's wrong with the world and everybody in it ... then go home to their lover, complain about the gas bill, quickly have sex and then fall asleep snoring

Re: Existential Extremism

[gamoonbat]

I know what you are saying about how these works are read by Americans. In their day, though, the existentialists were quite active in social and political change. Sartre did fight in the French resistance and was a Marxist during that cafe period. Camus was also widely read by street radicals of the 1960's. The real French Marxist was Louis Althusser, though.

I suspect you are right about their sex lives. Althusser was a bit more exciting in that regard as well.