Continental Philosophy since 1750: The Rise and Fall of the Self (History of Western Philosophy) [Paperback]

Robert C. Solomon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 1988 | Series: History of Western Philosophy (Book 7)

The flowering of creative and speculative philosophy that emerged in modern Europe--particularly in Germany--is a thrilling adventure story as well as an essential chapter in the history of philosophy. In this integrative narrative, Solomon provides an accessible introduction to the major authors and movements of modern European philosophy, including the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Rousseau, German Idealism, Kant, Fichte, Schelling and the Romantics, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Max Brentano, Meinong, Frege, Dilthey, Bergson, Nietzsche, Husserl, Freud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, hermeneutics, Sartre, Postmodernism, Structuralism, Foucault, and Derrida.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The central virtue of this study is Solomon's presentation of such difficult material in both a readable and succinct manner. The very idea of covering some 250 years of philosophy in 200 pages is mind-boggling. But not only does Solomon manage to accomplish this feat, he does so in a very readable manner....[It] is a book that could be successfully used in undergraduate courses....It would allow the student burdened by the complexity and difficulty of the texts of the great Continental philosophers to get a good sense of their overall views."--Teaching Philosophy

"Clear, learned, concise, useful."--Brian Finney, University of Southern California

About the Author

Robert C. Solomon is Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, and Professor of Philoophy at the University of California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (March 31, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192892029
• ISBN-13: 978-0192892027
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

G. Lee Bowie received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University and has taught at University of Michigan, University of Mass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College. Currently he is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College. Meredith W. Michaels received a Ph.D. in philosophy (with Clancy Martin), ETHICS AND EXCELLENCE, THE JOY OF PHILOSOPHY, and TRUE TO OUR FEELINGS, and he was co-editor of TWENTY QUESTIONS, Fifth Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels), and SINCE SOCRATES (with Clancy Martin).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear and concise analysis of the Trancendental Self, September 26, 2000

By 

W J Punt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Continental Philosophy since 1750: The Rise and Fall of the Self (History of Western Philosophy) (Paperback)

Having first encountered this book at university it has been helpful ever since as a quick reverence tool as well a being the ideal recommendation to anyone interested in getting to the meat of the modern philosophical condition.

Very well written - I commend Robert Solomon on a job very well done.

This book is part seven of a larger study of the history of Western Civilisation but in a way it deals with the core issue of Western thought -the individual identity and its relationship to the world. It plots the rise and fall of the Transcendental Self starting with its Renaissance birth as described by Rousseau . From there the book progresses in a logical and roughly chronological manner to a very informative discussion of Kantian ethics and the Self as well as German Idealism. ( great reading for scholars interested in Germanic development in the last 300 years.) He devotes about ten short but information packed pages to the apex of the Transcendental Self as represented in Hegelian Thought. His attention to "der List der Vernunft" - the cunning of reason - as Hegels' reaction to the despair and Dostoevsky-like bitterness of post Napoleonic Europe is very well laid out. In a world no longer willing to accept the Will of God argument as a explanation of the brutality of mankind Hegel gives the world a grim consolation. Behind it all there is a rational process, a teleological argument - its is the Cunning of Reason. It is a wasteful but purposeful process that manifests in the Hegelian Dialectic.

But this process also ultimately have expanded the idea of the Transcendental Self beyond the indivudual of Schelling and Fichte. This individual is no longer important - the dialectic development deals in the Cunning of Reason not with individuals but only with nations/peoples. At this point it would have been apt of the author to point to the obvious - the development of the nation state (think of National Socialism and Communism in the twentieth century)as a type of reactionary effort to rediscover the Transcendental Self albeit in Hegelian form.

In such a way Hegel sows the seed for the collapse of the Transcendental self as exemplified in the thoughts of Schopenhauer, the British Empiricists and of course Nietsche. His chapter on Nietsche is a high point and my favourite. His handling of Feuerbach Marx and Kierkegaard is concise but sufficient in their attempt at dealing with the loss of a Absolute.

The book them moves eloquently to the next evolutionary phase - that of the Self rediscovering the self ( the individual ) Stripped of its Absolutes ,the magnitude of the Hegelian dialectic as seen of nation level gets personal. Husserl and his desperate search for a logical method to discover the Absolute fails in it epistemological fantasies. In the end Husserl declares - Der Traum is ausgetraumt -the dream is finished (loose translation) He then progresses to Freud and Wittgenstein as classical examples of the Hegelian outer world becoming a equally vast and cunning inner world where man is not always master of his own house.

The book then reaches another peak with the discussion on Heidegger and Hermeneutics. His explanation of Dasein is the clearest that I have read but his handling of Gadamers' refinements of Hermeneutical thought is not adequate enough for me.

The final Death of the Self is brilliantly concluded in the discussions of the French existentialists and Structuralism (mainly Derrida) His critique of Derrida is insightful and makes one desire more from the author

The ending paragraph sums it all up:" Between the Self as Absolute Spirit and the Self as nothing at all there seems to be very little difference."

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great service!, March 14, 2011

By 

R. Byrd (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
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