Is there any value to Continental Philosophy whatsoever? - From the people who brought you Marx...

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

I've never been impressed with Continental philosophy. Back in high school I didn't know or understand the analytic/continental divide, and I'd refer to this shit as "English class philosophy" (with contempt), but as I got older and learned more I increasingly began to identify all I hate in philosophy with the continental tradition.

Am I wrong? Is there value to Continental philosophy? Is the problem mostly just the bankruptness of French philosophers? Continental philosophy seems piss poor on epistemology and seems cozy with weirdo metaphysical stuff and baseless speculation like Marx. Not to mention, the complete pretensions in the writing.

I've always viewed the analytic tradition as being more empiricist, scientific, restrained, well-written, and rigorous.

 

[Lasersuit Larry]

Nah. Any worth that it might have once had at some point or another is buried under the mountains of anti-thought that have been written based on the larger tradition. Total poo brains.

Edit: Civic nationalism is kinda neat though.

 

[Ophelia Jones]

 

[Hangly]

You were likely only ever exposed to Enlightenment philosophy. There was an anti-enlightenment counter movement that followed that you will never ever hear about.

DeMaistre, Hamann, Vico, Schiller, Fichte and Kant are all extremely worthwhile.

 

[DJ Grelle]

...
Just my pseud opinion but continental philo is extremely strong in epistemology; starting with descartian rationalism leading up to kantian idealism.
It is far more metaphysical, and if that is not your thing then I understand your reticent stance towards it. Things like Saussure's Structuralism really don't mesh with an empirical worldview.
Another problem is that after ww2 and the postwar reconstruction, and especially after may '68 and the long march through the institutions, almost every liberal arts position in universities has been filled with hardline marxists or at least those who lean towards it.

 

[SpergRush]

Is Kant continental philosophy? He's not that bad.

 

[Ser Prize]

Nah. Any worth that it might have once had at some point or another is buried under the mountains of anti-thought that have been written based on the larger tradition. Total poo brains.

Edit: Civic nationalism is kinda neat though.

Civic Nationalism is globalism.

 

[Lasersuit Larry]

Civic Nationalism is globalism.

Globalism isn't a world subverting ideology for no reason, globalization is an intrinsic material condition, a pandora's box that can't be fully closed.

At least with an earnest sense of civic nationalism you have a mechanism to maintain a sense of national unity and moral identity through demographic shifts and multi-nationalist elitism.

At least that's, like, my opinion man.

 

[shameful existence]

"Continental" philosophy is romantic, subjective, proudly beyond "science", passionate and dark. The sort of ideas to live or die for.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

"Continental" philosophy is romantic, subjective, proudly beyond "science", passionate and dark. The sort of ideas to live or die for.

They make claims about objective reality.

 

[Jarolleon]

You were likely only ever exposed to Enlightenment philosophy. There was an anti-enlightenment counter movement that followed that you will never ever hear about.

DeMaistre, Hamann, Vico, Schiller, Fichte and Kant are all extremely worthwhile.

Maistre is fun to read, even if his outlook is so blackpilled that he's basically the HP Lovecraft of political thought . All I know about the others is that Schiller's Reiterlied goes surprisingly well with motorcyles and my dad likes to quote "Fest gemauert in der Erden" whenever we've got something well & truly stuck.

 

[feedtheoctopus]

Civic Nationalism is globalism.

With technological and economic developments all forms of nationalism are archaic. Kind of like that one boss you had who still insists on everything getting printed and put into a filing cabinet even though it's easier and cheaper to just save it on a computer. Or that one guy you know who still has a landline and still buys porn DVDs. World's not going back. Ever. And really it was never like that anyway, golden ages aren't real.

So like anything else it's adapt or stagnate.

 

[Hangly]

Maistre is fun to read, even if his outlook is so blackpilled that he's basically the HP Lovecraft of political thought . All I know about the others is that Schiller's Reiterlied goes surprisingly well with motorcyles and my dad likes to quote "Fest gemauert in der Erden" whenever we've got something well & truly stuck.

Isaiah Berlin has a wonderful 5 part lecture series on Romanticism, you can find it on YouTube most of the time

 

[Narutard]

Saying continental philosophy is weak on epistemology is a pretty shit take. I agree with you that moral philosophy is pretentious bs, however.

Edit: With exception of Diogenes, Socrates (not Plato) and Kierkegaard imho.

 

[Shpongoolio Trismegistus]

It's fraught with savagely poor reasoning and idealistic notions of nominalism. It is more than anything an historical account of the personal metaphysics of the individual adherents of the branch within the subject of philosophy in gestalt, which makes for the golden opportunity to derive exceptionally valuable psychoanalytic insights from their mostly insane ramblings.

This is not to say that they are all madmen, or that the school itself is not worth studying. What it needs, really, is an injection of scientific method and proper application of pragmatic logic through Pierciean existential graphing. This will, without a doubt, take some generations to accomplish at minimum.