Hey /lit/,
I'm a philosophy undergraduate at a well-respected institution that thinks about philosophical issues mainly through an Analytic lens. In the interest of avoiding dogma and enriching my education by engaging with different perspectives, I'm looking to start up a Continental philosophy reading group. I've read some stuff by Heidegger, Derrida and various media theorists myself, but I'm not sure what the level of familiarity will be for the whole group. We're especially interested in perspectives outside of traditional Western metaphysical/linearly-logical/rationalistic modes of thinking. I'd like to dive right in to discourse analysis and deconstruction stuff, but I think it might be productive to work through something a little more foundational first, like Nietzsche or Heidegger, to get in the frame of mind of thinking in modes other than what we're used to. Anyone have any thoughts on potential good places to start or things to eventually read? The basic idea is that the academic institutions that shaped us, the transcendental or Analytic concerns we're inclined to take for granted, and the rational standards we hold concepts and arguments up against all ought to be more thoroughly interrogated.
Many thanks!
>>7415927
>little more foundational first, like Nietzsche or Heidegger
>foundational
>>7415931
We've all already read the Greeks, Kant and Hegel.
I never get the chance to use this so Im just going to do it now
>>7415938
I like it but I think the stars' names need to contain better puns and Derrida's name needs to be more understated for when the reference clicks into place
>>7415927
Hm, Nietzsche is very hard to recommend, in large part because he's so *intentionally* obscure; it's easy to dismiss him as either merely opining or poetizing, and to thereby miss how his rhetoric (which is definitely there and intended as such) serves his philosophical purposes. His book Human, All Too Human might be the most worthy for a group made up of people familiar with analytic formulations of philosophy, since he's intentionally using positivistic images and ideas throughout, as a means of preparing the reader for a certain "freespiritedness" that came to see as essential for an understanding of the projects exemplified by Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil.
I imagine it'd be hard to suggest it, but Heidegger's lecture course, "Logic: The Question of Truth" might get at exactly the sort of thing your group is wondering about, and much more straightforwardly than almost anything else by Heidegger. I suppose the worry with that is whether it's affordable, or if you have access to a library, whether it'll have *any* copies at all, and if so, enough for the group to work with. Just a thought.
Have you considered looking into Husserl? Heidegger studied the former's "Logical Investigations" very intensely for a period before he developed his own approach to phenomenology. Perhaps the great strength of looking at Husserl is that there's some definite overlap between his project and that of Frege (and in fact, Husserl owed a good deal to a review by Frege of one of his early books; Frege's antipsychologistic arguments against Husserl's early position were much expanded on and strengthened by Husserl himself), which might make Continental thought somewhat more accessible. Derrida too owed Husserl much, and his own early writings were preoccupied with Husserlian phenomenology.
I hope this helps somewhat.
Nietzsche and Hegel. If you know these guys you can go anywhere.
>>7415937
Augustine of Hippo
Marcus Aurelius
Hume
Soren Kierkegaard (Bae)
Nietzsche
Heidegger
Foucault (shite. important, but shite.)
>Come back when you've finished this and we'll talk about your book report.
Is Heidigger more lucid in german? Rather, is he easier to understand? Or is it mostly the same experience.
>>7415927
I'm doing this now atm OP. The professors in my university are analytic but the philosophy reading group I'm a part of over at a nearby community college is run someone who is more interested in continental philosophy. Funny thing is he had the same professors I have now. He's doing his graduate thesis on Ricoeur.
Last semester we read Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil and this semester we've been reading Essays by Heidegger. We started off with the preface to Being and Time, then What is Metaphysics? On the Essence of Truth, Letter on Humanism, and The Question Concerning Technology. So far the sessions have been great but I can't stop seeing Heidegger in everything.
If you want something a little more foundational (in relation to Heidegger I guess) I think Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl were some of his biggest influences. Hegel as well, I see a lot of Hegel in there but I know close to nothing about him. Good luck
>>7416135
Whoops, I didn't put Aristotle in that list. Aristotle is important.
