In his Oxford “very short introduction” to Continental philosophy, Simon Critchley suggests that Continental philosophy is “a professional self-description” and a “cultural feature.” The former is “a necessary - but perhaps transitory - evil of the professionalization of the disciple.” The latter is not so much a geographic conflict as “the expression of a conflict (and moreover a sectarian conflict) that is internal to ‘Englishness.” The opposition of Continental-analytic is “the expression of a deep cultural divide between differing and opposed habits of thought - let’s call them Benthamite and Coleridgean, or empirical-scientific and hermeneutic-romantic.” Citing John Stuart Mill, he suggests that it is a mistake to choose either, since that might be a matter of “mistaking a part for the whole.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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