Heidegger

Someone on another discussion list is looking for the earliest
references to the division between “analytic philosophy” and
“continental philosophy” (those specific phrases). Does anyone here
know? So far, the following two are the earliest I’ve found:

1.
Author(s): E. N.
Reviewed work(s): Language, Truth and Logic by Alfred J. Ayer
Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 12 (Jun. 4, 1936), pp.
328-330
Publisher: Journal of Philosophy, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2016260

Nagel critiques Ayer’s brand of “analytic philosophy” (phrase occurs on
p. 329), and then on the next page compliments Ayer for having “stated
in clear language the outcome of the logico-analytic method, freed from
the disturbing overtones of the continental schools…” That’s the only
reference to “continental” in the review.

2.
Philosophic Thought in France and the United States
Author(s): Herbert W. Schneider
Source: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Mar.,
1951), pp. 376-385
Publisher: International Phenomenological Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2103542

The phrase “continental philosophies” occurs on p. 380, where the author
describes it as having been revolutionized by Husserl and as dominated
by the phenomenological method. The phrase “analytic philosophy” occurs
on p. 383 in the context of American thought, and is characterized by
the author as distinctly “objective,” “scientific,” and “conceptual” in
its methodology, in that even subjective phenomena are described
“objectively,” as in the “facts” of subjectivity. The author opposes
this (in the same paragraph) to the French call to “pass beyond all
conceptualizations.”

Anyone know of any earlier ones?

Posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 8:35 am
comment | rss 2.0 | trackback