The Death of Philosophy: Reference and Self-reference in Contemporary Thought

Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel

Published by Columbia University Press 2011

The Death of Philosophy

Reference and Self-reference in Contemporary Thought

Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel
Translated by: Richard A. Lynch

https://doi.org/10.7312/thom14778

Overview
Contents

About this book

Philosophers debate the death of philosophy as much as they debate the death of God. Kant claimed responsibility for both philosophy's beginning and end, while Heidegger argued it concluded with Nietzsche. In the twentieth century, figures as diverse as John Austin and Richard Rorty have proclaimed philosophy's end, with some even calling for the advent of "postphilosophy." In an effort to make sense of these conflicting positionswhich often say as much about the philosopher as his subjectIsabelle Thomas-Fogiel undertakes the first systematic treatment of "the end of philosophy," while also recasting the history of western thought itself.

Thomas-Fogiel begins with postphilosophical claims such as scientism, which she reveals to be self-refuting, for they subsume philosophy into the branches of the natural sciences. She discovers similar issues in Rorty's skepticism and strands of continental thought. Revisiting the work of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century philosophers, when the split between analytical and continental philosophy began, Thomas-Fogiel finds both traditions followed the same paththe road of referencewhich ultimately led to self-contradiction. This phenomenon, whether valorized or condemned, has been understood as the death of philosophy. Tracing this pattern from Quine to Rorty, from Heidegger to Levinas and Habermas, Thomas-Fogiel reveals the self-contradiction at the core of their claims while also carving an alternative path through self-reference. Trained under the French philosopher Bernard Bourgeois, she remakes philosophy in exciting new ways for the twenty-first century.

Author / Editor information

Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel is director of research in the Doctoral School of Philosophy at the Sorbonne. She specializes in the history of philosophy, the philosophy of science, and aesthetics and has published five books in French.

Richard A. Lynch is instructor of philosophy at DePauw University and founder of the Foucault Circle. He has also translated works by Michel Foucault and François Ewald.

Reviews

Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University, author of Kant and Idealism:
Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel provides the first extended analysis of the theme of the end, or 'death,' of philosophy, which has been on the agenda since at least the early nineteenth century. Thomas-Fogiel, one of our most promising young French philosophers, writes clearly, persuasively, and insightfully. She ranges widely over both continental and analytic sources and concentrates well on arguments, weighing and evaluating different interpretations of major figures. This is an important book.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Translator’s Note Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
I. The End of Philosophy, or the Paradoxes of Speaking
1. Skeptical and Scientific “Post-philosophy” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. “Saying and the Said”: Two Paradigms for the Same Subject Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
3. The Antispeculative View: Habermas as an Example Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
4. Kant’s Shadow in the Current Philosophical Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
II. Challenging the “Death of Philosophy”: The Reflexive A Priori
5. A Definition of the Model: Scientific Learning and Philosophical Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
6. The Model of Self-reference’s Consistency Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
7. The Model’s Fecundity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
8. Beyond the Death of Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
III. The End of Philosophy in Perspective: The Source of the Reflexive Deficit
9. The “Race to Reference” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
10. The Tension Between Reference and Self-reference in the Kantian System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
11. Helmholtz’s Choice as a Choice for Reference: The Naturalization of Critique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
12. Critique: A Positivist Theory of Knowledge or Existential Ontology? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
13. Questioning the History of Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 360

eBook

Published: May 24, 2011
ISBN: 9780231519632