Contemporary French Thought: Fifty Years, Volume 1 and 2

Author: Gao Xuanhang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Since the emergence of modern civilization, French thought has held a unique position in the treasure trove of world culture due to its profound philosophical foundations. Looking over the development of contemporary French thought over the past five decades, it can also be found that it continues to construct the important foundation for the development of contemporary world civilization and its theoretical thought. Introducing contemporary French thought to China, as the chairman of the French Philosophical Society, Jacques Dantec, said, is "no one else who could better depict it." If the 18th-century Enlightenment in France was once the theoretical source and "philosophical introduction" of the intellectual revolution in the history of modern capitalist society and culture, then at the critical moment when human history enters the 21st century, contemporary French thought has once again honorably become the main driving force for the thorough reconstruction of Western culture and the "philosophical introduction." The contemporary French thought revolution movement that took place in the second half of the 20th century and the end of the century was not only a simple continuation or imitation of the secondary Enlightenment, but its creativity and thoroughness were almost a true "anti-Enlightenment," a "post-Enlightenment" that challenged the direction of the secondary Enlightenment. Contemporary French thought has almost become an important spiritual pillar and intellectual foundation for all major changes in European and Western culture and its basic theories in the contemporary era. During this period, various theoretical trends such as psychoanalysis, existentialism, new Marxism, semiotics, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, constructivism, new feminism, and postmodernism emerged one after another, forming a free and creative written expression of diverse ideas and debates. Contemporary French thought is a collective intellectual product created and continuously enriched and developed by a group of outstanding French thinkers and excellent French intellectuals. The significant historical significance implied by the shining names such as Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Roland Barthes, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Ricoeur, and Deleuze, and their contributions to the entire world civilization are self-evident. This book aims to present the evolution of French thought from the mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, including its themes of thought, modes of thinking, processes of debate, reconstruction, and the formation and practical effects of various inspiring and important intellectual perspectives derived from it. Over more than two decades of living, studying, and researching in France, the author has been deeply immersed in French thought and culture, interacting with French thinkers. Introducing contemporary French thought to China, as the chairman of the French Philosophical Society, Jacques Dantec, said, is "no one else who could better depict it."