After Philosophy: End or Transformation? by Kenneth Baynes (Editor), James Bohman (Editor), James Bohman (Editor), Thomas McCarthy (Editor), Thomas McCarthy (Editor)

From the Publisher

After Philosophy provides an excellent framework for understanding the most important strains of current philosophical work in North America, England, France, and Germany. The selections from the work of fourteen contemporary philosophers not only display the multiplicity of approaches being pursued since the breakup of any consensus on what philosophy is, but also help to clarify this proliferation of views and to spell out today's basic options for doing, or not doing, philosophy today. With a general introduction delineating what is in dispute between the different parties to the end-of-philosophy debates, brief introductions to the thought of each author, and suggestions for further reading following each selection, After Philosophy is ideally suited for use in any course that includes an overview of the bewildering variety of contemporary approaches to philosophy.

The major sections and contributors are: I. The End of Philosophy. Richard Rorty Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida. II. The Transformation of Philosophy: Systematic Proposals. Donald Davidson, Michael Dummett, Hilary Putnam, Karl-Otto Apel, Jürgen Habermas. III. The Transformation of Philosophy: Hermeneutics, Narrative, Rhetoric. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Alasdair Maclntyre, Hans Blumenberg, Charles Taylor.

Kenneth Baynes is currently doing postgraduate research at the University of Frankfurt. James Bohman lectures in philosophy at Boston University, and Thomas McCarthy is a professor of philosophy at Northwestern University and the editor of the MIT Press series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought.

Library Journal

These essays, all recent works by philosophers from America, France, England, and Germany, have been grouped to address the question whether philosophy is still a valid pursuit. Arguing for the end of philosophy are Rorty, Lyotard, Foucault, and Derrida. Arguing that it is instead in a state of transition are Davidson, Dummett, Putnam, Apel, Habermas, Gadamer, Ricoeur, MacIntyre, Blumenberg, and Taylor (who contributes the only original essay). There is an introductory essay, brief explanations of each author's thought, and suggestions for further reading. An excellent overview of the variety of contemporary, international approaches to philosophy that will be of interest to informed laypersons as well as scholars. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, D.C.

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Table of Contents