the abyss means...

That is not to say that British philosophy is one big happy family. By far the greatest division remains that between departments specializing in "Continental" philosophy, which for the past century have followed in the footsteps of early phenomenologists such as Husserl, and and those specializing in "analytic" philosophy, which have followed Frege, Russell, and Whitehead and concentrated on logic and the analysis of language. Such is the traditional gulf between those two traditions that it is possible for institutions such as the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University to have philosophers literally across the road from one another who are perhaps incapable and certainly often unwilling to enter into philosophical dialogue.
Philosophies, Separated by a Common Language (via EPhilosopher)

That conjures such nice images in my head...

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Same department, sometimes. Allegedly.

When A J "Freddy" Mayer was in Paris he was mates with Maurice "Maurice" Merleau-Ponty, but they gave up talking about philosophy because there was no common ground.

Freddy and Georges Bataille once argued till 3am, with Maurice umpiring, about whether or not there was such a thing as a sunrise before there were people.

Simon Critchley's "Very Short Introduction to Continental Philosophy" is packed with such hilarious* anecdotes, and some pretty funny photo captions/section headings, too.

* Humour is a matter of personal taste. Your statutory rights are not affected.

des on August 6, 2003 01:28 PM

I might have a look... It can't hurt. Can it?

joh on August 6, 2003 11:20 PM

The photo of Nietzsche in full Prussian army regalia (with sword) posing like he thinks he's effing nails, when he's clearly just an emotionally unstable mummy's boy is worth the cover price on its own.

des on August 7, 2003 09:46 AM

It sounds fantastic. I am very much looking forward to seeing it!

joh on August 11, 2003 01:28 PM