Just Finished Reading: Twentieth-Century French Philosophy by Eric Matthews.

Despite being brought up in a largely Anglo-American world view I much prefer Continental Philosophy to its Anglo-American counterpart. This is because, in the main, Continental Philosophy deals with what I feel are important issues of the day – politics and social issues – rather than the rather dry and dull issues of logic and meaning mulled over in Analytic Philosophy. Of course I am aware that if we do not understand the meanings of the words we use then communication of ideas is much more difficult, but I think that these pursuits should aid us in our understanding of our lives and should not be idle pursuits in themselves. Personally I prefer my philosophy to have a practical face rather than a purely theoretical one.

That being the case I was, of course, drawn to this overview of French philosophy in the 20th Century. I must admit to being more that a little disappointed with this volume. Maybe I should have know this when the author admitted to belonging in the Analytic tradition despite his overtures to bridging the gap between the two great Western schools of thought. He did actually provide a good historical background to the influences on great thinkers such as Sartre, Foucault and Derrida moving from the late 19th Century through the influence of the First World War, the Occupation and Resistance to the Germans (during which many philosophers worked for the most effective group – the Communists) and of course events in 1968. I was more than a little disappointed in his virtual dismissal of Camus though, especially as I have recently been reading him and find his work of great interest.

The most disappointing aspect of this work for me was the singular lack of the social and political philosophy I was expecting. The last third of the book in particular concentrated far too much on post-modern textual analysis which I honestly struggled with. In some senses in was all very interesting but, at least in my opinion, kind of misses the point in that although it throws some light on the kind of texts we use and how we use them in doesn’t address the issue of how we are to live. Although generally interesting as an historical overview of an interesting period in French Philosophy I think this book lost its way and fizzled out towards the end which was a pity as it was on the whole well written.