German Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Andrew Bowie

OUP Oxford, May 27, 2010 - History - 137 pages

German philosophy remains the core of modern philosophy. Without Kant, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Husserl there would be no Anglo-American 'analytical' style of philosophy. Moreover, without Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, the 'Continental Philosophy' of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou, and Zizek, which has had major effects on humanities subjects in recent years, is incomprehensible. Knowledge of German philosophy is, then, an indispensable prerequisite of theoretically informed study in the humanities as a whole. German Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction discusses the idea that German philosophy forms one of the most revealing responses to the problems of 'modernity'. The rise of the modern natural sciences and the related decline of religion raises a series of questions, which recur throughout German philosophy, concerning the relationships between knowledge and faith, reason and emotion, and scientific, ethical, and artistic ways of seeing the world. There are also many significant philosophers who are generally neglected in most existing English-language treatments of German philosophy, which tend to concentrate on the canonical figures. This Very Short Introduction will include reference to these thinkers and suggests how they can be used to question more familiar German philosophical thought. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - pmackey - LibraryThing

A good overview of German philosophy that provides the lay of the land. I'm kind of surprised Kant only got one chapter, but then Oxford has another Very Short Intro for him. I appreciated that the author discussed current (as of 2010) German philosophy.

Contents

• why German philosophy?: 1
• 1 Kant and modernity: 6
• 2 The linguistic turn: 21
• 3 German Idealism: 32
• 4 Early Romantic philosophy: 51
• 5 Marx: 59
• 6 Nietzsche Schopenhauer and the death of God: 70
• 7 NeoKantianism analytical philosophy and phenomenology: 84
• 8 Heidegger: 97
• 9 Critical Theory: 110
• References: 126
• Further reading: 129
• Index: 135

About the author

Andrew Bowie is Professor of Philosophy and German at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published very widely in the areas of modern German philosophy, literature, and music. His previous publications include Aesthetics and Subjectivity: from Kant to Nietzsche (Manchester UniversityPress, 1993); Schelling and Modern European Philosophy: An Introduction (Routledge, 1993), and Introduction to German Philosophy from Kant to Habermas (Polity, 2003).

Bibliographic information

• Title: German Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction; Volume 233 of Very Short Introductions
• Author: Andrew Bowie
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2010
• ISBN: 0199569258, 9780199569250
• Length: 137 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Germany; Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy / History & Surveys / General; Philosophy / Political; Religion / General