Education

I am looking for a good introduction to Continental philosophy, giving an overview of the key players, but written in lay-accessible language. Any suggestions of good books or the like?

Comments

The label 'Continental philosophy' tends to cover an extremely diverse collection of philosophers and approaches, and there's a lot of disagreement about who and what exactly should be included. So I'll just recommend two books that I (as someone who works in 'analytic philosophy') found useful as introductions to some of the major German philosophers and schools. First, Andrew Bowie's "An Introduction to German Philosophy: From Kant to Habermas" is a great overview of many major German thinkers, especially in making clear how their views grow out of and are connected with their predecessors. David Couzens Hoy's "The Critical Circle" is a bit more narrowly focused on hermeneutics and the connection between philosophy and literary theory, but it draws together the work of German, French, and American philosophers and literary theorists in a way I found very helpful.

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