--- John Bizwas <bizwas at lycos.com> wrote: 1. I think there is a long-running Anglo-American prejudice against the continental thinkers that we really have to get past. Is it simply something in the water that makes British, American, and Nordic philosophers better philosophers? Or the bad food? I highly doubt it. Rather, there would seem to be fewer linguistic and culturally patterned thought differences amongst the Anglo and Nordic philosophy worlds getting in the way of mutual understanding and empathy--well, PERHAPS anyway.
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I don't think there has been a really interesting Anglo-American philosopher since David Hume. Maybe William James. (They're not necessarily _wrong_, just _boring_.)
2. I'm not sure Wittgenstin qualifies as a good example of a continental philosopher, since he is largely recognized as one who worked in the Anglo-American-analytic tradition (and this Anglo-analytic tradition, if you are interested in the history of philosophy, also owes a lot to the Vienna Circle and other thinkers out of Austria and Europe). ---
Esp. Schopenhauer. (Definitely a philosopher in the non-boring camp!) Wittgensteain is much closer to the "spirit" of most Continental philosophers than AA ones, in my opinion. He was basically a religious writer and a mystic IMHO.
--- 3. I'm not sure either about W's lack of obscurity or his accessibility in his Tractatus period.
-- I agree with you -- the Tractatus was one the most cryptic books I have ever read.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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