CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY (THEORY): DEFINITIONS
So-called 'Continental' (or European) philosophy is in many ways an unsatisfactory term. An English term in origin, according to Simon Critchley, it originally served as a marker of geographical or cultural difference designed to differentiate philosophical developments on the Continent (and in France and Germany especially) from those in the United Kingdom and, later, the USA. J. S. Mill may have been one of the first to draw such a distinction, differentiating between the two different responses to Kant in the nineteenth century which occurred in Germany (on the part of thinkers like Hegel or English adherents like Coleridge) and in England, respectively. Similar views have continued to be expressed since then by various English philosophers such as J. L. Austin in the 1950s who strove to differentiate his own work from that of philosophers across the channel such as Sartre. Today, the term serves to designate less a geographical or cultural difference than a distinctive form of philosophical research, oriented especially towards the arts, humanities, and social sciences, that is practised as much in the English-speaking world as it is in non-English-speaking areas. This is how I use the term here.
POSTMODERNISM
The term Postmodernism is often used, seemingly, as a synonym for Continental philosophy. It is a term used partly in a chronological sense to refer to the period(s) following 'Modernism' (in the sense not of Anglo-American Modernism, Myth Criticism and New Criticism but of the Enlightenment in particular and the Early Modern period in general) and partly in an epistemological sense to denote the radical challenge posed to that cluster of assumptions concerning the possibility of objectivity, the nature of identity, etc. which we have come to associate with the Enlightenment.
For some, especially in departments of literature and the social sciences, another synonym for Continental Philosophy is Theory (or Cultural, Literary or Social Theory). See in this regard the distinction between Philosophy and Theory.
UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMES, RESEARCH CENTRES, RESEARCH PROJECTS
I have attempted to list, according to their geographic location, programmes with a demonstrable and, in many cases, self-advertised orientation towards Continental philosophy. Given that much Continental philosophy is done outside of traditional departments of philosophy, I have also listed programmes in Critical Theory, etc. with a decidedly Continental orientation. In some cases, I have listed other departments (marked with an *) which, though not exclusively Continental in orientation, have noticeable strengths in this area.
RANKINGS
I have not attempted to rank programmes in Continental philosophy. The rankings of programmes in Kant and German Idealism, Nineteenth Century Continental Philosophy After Hegel, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy offered by the Philosophical Gourmet Report (a controversial website often thought to be biased in favour of Anglo-American Analytic philosophy) can be misleading in that programmes with notable strengths in this area (e.g. Cardiff, the New School of Social Research, or the University of Essex) have in the past sometimes been left out or ranked very lowly in favour of others (e.g. Oxford) where the emphasis is decidedly not Continental but where there may be a good philosopher or two (e.g. Grahame Lock or Michael Rosen) working in the area. The criteria employed by the Report have been the subject of great controversy among philosophers. It should be pointed out, however, that the most recent edition of the Report, given the installation of an editorial board comprising specialists in the area, seems more balanced.
For alternative points of view to that of the Report, see the following:
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American Philosophical Association: Statement on the Rankings of Philosophy Programmes
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Hartmann, John: Hartmann Report: a Ranking of US Departments in Continental Philosophy (tongue-in-cheek response to Brian Leiter)
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Heck, Richard: A Web Site Dedicated to Counteracting the Excessive Influence of Leiter's Philosophical Gourmet Report
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Hoekema, David:
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Review of Bruce Wilshire's Fashionable Nihilism (an attack on Leiter)
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Leiter, Brian: Response to Hoekema
- Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: List of Programmes in Continental Philosophy
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Velleman, J. David: The Lighter Report (a parody of Leiter's Philosophical Gourmet Report that now seems to have been removed from the web)
