Vincent Descombes: Modern French Philosophy (1979–) [EN, ES, GR, CZ, RU]

“This is a critical introduction to modern French philosophy, commissioned from one of the liveliest contemporary practitioners and intended for an English-speaking readership. The dominant ‘Anglo-Saxon’ reaction to philosophical development in France has for some decades been one of suspicion, occasionally tempered by curiosity but more often hardening into dismissive rejection. But there are signs now of a more sympathetic interest and an increasing readiness to admit and explore shared concerns, even if these are still expressed in a very different idiom and intellectual context.

Vincent Descombes offers here a personal guide to the main movements and figures of the last forty-five years. He traces over this period the evolution of thought from a generation preoccupied with the ‘three H’s’ – Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger, to a generation influenced since about 1960 by the ‘three masters of suspicion’ – Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. In this framework he deals in turn with the thought of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, the early structuralists, Foucault, Althusser, Serres, Derrida, and finally Deleuze and Lyotard. The ‘internal’ intellectual history of the period is related to its institutional setting and the wider cultural and political context which has given French philosophy so much of its distinctive character.” (from the back cover, 1980)

First published in French as Le Même et L’Autre, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1979

English edition
Translated by L. Scott-Fox and J. M. Harding
With a Foreword by Alan Montefiore
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1980
ISBN 0521296722
192 pages

Review (Robert Young, MLN, 1982)
Review (Alasdair MacIntyre, London Review of Books, 1981)
Interview with the author (Praxis, 2012/2013)

Publisher (EN)

Modern French Philosophy (English, trans. L. Scott-Fox and J. M. Harding, 1980, no OCR)
Lo mismo y lo otro: cuarenta y cinco años de filosofía francesca (1933-1978) (Spanish, trans. Elena Benarroch, 2nd ed., 1982/1988, pp 12-15 missing, no OCR)
Το Ίδιο και το Άλλο: 45 χρόνια γαλλικής φιλοσοφίας 1933-1978 (Greek, trans. Λένα Κασίμη, 1984)
Stejné a jiné: Čtyřicetpět let francouzské filosofie (1933-1978) (Czech, trans. Miroslav Petříček jr, 1995, no OCR)
Sovremennaya frantsuzskaya filosofiya (Russian, trans. M.M. Fedorov, 2000, DJVU)

Thomas McEvilley: The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies (2001)

Spanning thirty years of intensive research, this book proves what many scholars could not explain: that today’s Western world must be considered the product of both Greek and Indian thought—Western and Eastern philosophies.

Thomas McEvilley explores how trade, imperialism, and migration currents allowed cultural philosophies to intermingle freely throughout India, Egypt, Greece, and the ancient Near East. This groundbreaking reference will stir relentless debate among philosophers, art historians, and students.

Publisher Allworth Press, with the School of Visual Arts, New York, 2001
ISBN 1581152035, 9781581152036
732 pages

Review (Will S. Rasmussen, Philosophy East and West)
Commentary (David Carrier, Artcritical)
McEvilley talks about his book (video, 34 min)

Wikipedia
Publisher
Google books

PDF (EPUB)
PDF (Alt link)

François Cusset: French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States (2003–) [FR, EN]

“During the last three decades of the twentieth century, a disparate group of radical French thinkers achieved an improbable level of influence and fame in the United States. Compared by at least one journalist to the British rock ‘n’ roll invasion, the arrival of works by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari on American shores in the late 1970s and 1980s caused a sensation.

Outside the academy, “French theory” had a profound impact on the era’s emerging identity politics while also becoming, in the 1980s, the target of right-wing propagandists. At the same time in academic departments across the country, their poststructuralist form of radical suspicion transformed disciplines from literature to anthropology to architecture. By the 1990s, French theory was woven deeply into America’s cultural and intellectual fabric.

French Theory is the first comprehensive account of the American fortunes of these unlikely philosophical celebrities. François Cusset looks at why America proved to be such fertile ground for French theory, how such demanding writings could become so widely influential, and the peculiarly American readings of these works. Reveling in the gossipy history, Cusset also provides a lively exploration of the many provocative critical practices inspired by French theory. Ultimately, he dares to shine a bright light on the exultation of these thinkers to assess the relevance of critical theory to social and political activism today—showing, finally, how French theory has become inextricably bound with American life.”

Publisher La Découverte, Paris, 2003
ISBN 2707146730
373 pages

English edition
Translated by Jeff Fort, With Josephine Berganza and Marlon Jones
Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2008
ISBN 0816647321, 9780816647323
388 pages

Reviews: Jennifer Ferng (Leonardo), Juliet J. Fall (Foucault Studies), Ethan Kleinberg (NPDR), Bridie Lonie (Junctures, FR).

Publisher (FR)
Publisher (EN)

French Theory: Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux États-Unis. (French)
French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States. (English)