Recent great works in "continental" philosophy
December 28, 2021 8:36 AM Subscribe
I'd love to hear what's been happening in the tradition of philosophy that diverged in the first decades of the 20th century over Hegel and followed the phenomenological school into what we now call "continental philosophy". What are the folks of the most recent generation(s), say thinkers and professors under 50, doing in this space?
About 7 years ago I abandoned a philosophy PhD. My focus was early modern but I'd still deign to call myself more or less an expert in 20th century European and American continental thought. I also am very familiar with 20th century "analytic" philosophy, at least the post-Wittgensteinian trends, folks like Rorty, Davidson, Parfit, Anscombe, etc.
But during the last years of my studies I was deep into niches of scholarship, reading and writing hyper-specific essays on obscure topics like the concept of causality in Descartes Principia and so forth. I definitely did not keep up with what was going on in terms of "original", not historical philosophy among my contemporaries except for noting big events, like the publication of Heidegger's Schwarze Hefte. I am also familiar with the beginnings of the "Object Oriented" school of philosophy but not sure where it has gone since the early 00s.
So what has been happening in the Continental school. Are figures emerging who are under 50 or so who seem to be developing a new way forward? I'd love to get a list of books and authors or papers to occupy my evenings with.
Challenge: I can read French almost as well as English, so anyone who is not translated into English but wrote in French / has been translated into French is an option. German is also workable.
Challenge #2: If the thinker is famous and near the end of their life or very advanced in their career, I'm probably already familiar with them (e.g., Brandom, Badiou, Habermas, Ranciere, Kristeva, Butler were definitely big figures we all were talking about in 2010, but are nonetheless artifacts of the 20th century. I've read some Zizek for what he's worth). I'm curious about where my generation or a bit older/younger is taking this strain of philosophy.
Who is under 50 and making waves? Help me turn 2022 into the year of Getting Up To Date In Continental.
About 7 years ago I abandoned a philosophy PhD. My focus was early modern but I'd still deign to call myself more or less an expert in 20th century European and American continental thought. I also am very familiar with 20th century "analytic" philosophy, at least the post-Wittgensteinian trends, folks like Rorty, Davidson, Parfit, Anscombe, etc.
But during the last years of my studies I was deep into niches of scholarship, reading and writing hyper-specific essays on obscure topics like the concept of causality in Descartes Principia and so forth. I definitely did not keep up with what was going on in terms of "original", not historical philosophy among my contemporaries except for noting big events, like the publication of Heidegger's Schwarze Hefte. I am also familiar with the beginnings of the "Object Oriented" school of philosophy but not sure where it has gone since the early 00s.
So what has been happening in the Continental school. Are figures emerging who are under 50 or so who seem to be developing a new way forward? I'd love to get a list of books and authors or papers to occupy my evenings with.
Challenge: I can read French almost as well as English, so anyone who is not translated into English but wrote in French / has been translated into French is an option. German is also workable.
Challenge #2: If the thinker is famous and near the end of their life or very advanced in their career, I'm probably already familiar with them (e.g., Brandom, Badiou, Habermas, Ranciere, Kristeva, Butler were definitely big figures we all were talking about in 2010, but are nonetheless artifacts of the 20th century. I've read some Zizek for what he's worth). I'm curious about where my generation or a bit older/younger is taking this strain of philosophy.
Who is under 50 and making waves? Help me turn 2022 into the year of Getting Up To Date In Continental.
I also looped back to see if there were any interesting names dropped; alas. Not a direct answer, but maybe you could ask in this Discord? The readings mentioned on the page are The Standard FolksTM but seems like a group that would have more responses than the more generalist AskMe crowd. There is also a Deleuze and Guattari Quarantine Collective Discord mentioned on that page that might have answers for you.
posted by youarenothere at 6:34 PM on January 1, 2022
posted by youarenothere at 6:34 PM on January 1, 2022
The New Books Network podcast is pretty good for hearing interviews with authors about new publications, and they have both a 'philosophy' and an 'intellectual history' channel, and I guess for Reasons the more continental side of philosophy shows up in both channels.
A recent interview with Graham Harman about his new book 'Skirmishes with Friends, Enemies and Neutrals' could be up your street, since he talks about recent developments in the general field and tries to situate his 'skirmishes' in relation to other works. It's clearly slanted in Harman's favour, but it'll bring you up to speed with where OOO may have got to all the same. There are other episodes under the Critical Theory tag that'll be relevant to those interests as well.
I sympathise, it's hard (indeed, it's a full time job) to keep on top of what's what and who's doing what where and with whom, and (for obvious reasons) it's a matter of serious contention to try to make sense of what's 'new' and who's hot and where things are going or aren't going. I'm not informed enough to hazard any judgements here, but I'd like to help if I could!
posted by Joeruckus at 10:49 AM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
A recent interview with Graham Harman about his new book 'Skirmishes with Friends, Enemies and Neutrals' could be up your street, since he talks about recent developments in the general field and tries to situate his 'skirmishes' in relation to other works. It's clearly slanted in Harman's favour, but it'll bring you up to speed with where OOO may have got to all the same. There are other episodes under the Critical Theory tag that'll be relevant to those interests as well.
I sympathise, it's hard (indeed, it's a full time job) to keep on top of what's what and who's doing what where and with whom, and (for obvious reasons) it's a matter of serious contention to try to make sense of what's 'new' and who's hot and where things are going or aren't going. I'm not informed enough to hazard any judgements here, but I'd like to help if I could!
posted by Joeruckus at 10:49 AM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by umbú at 7:01 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]