Chris Bateman and Babette Babich: Claiming the Continental Flag
Conversations re-booted and reblogged for the sake of reading. In this post (published 13 December 2016), Chris Bateman asked me what characterized the (alas, dying) tradition of continental philosophy and why so many philosophers feel the need to appropriate the designation for their work. The discussion continues with an exploration of the continental designation claimed by scholars who have otherwise trained in the analytic tradition. Chris Bateman: This still leaves open part of my original query : why, given the predominance of analytic methodology, would anyone feel the need to claim continental as part of their title? Babette Babich: Your question, as you first posed it, brilliantly stepped aside all the complex muck I’ve tracked back in regarding the 'analytics' and the 'continentals,' and their disputes and bitter histories, almost up to the veritable ‘existentialist café’ reference to Sartre, to ask why, and everything I’ve brou
