A History of Western Philosophy: The Twentieth Century to Quine and Derrida, Volume V

Studying the philosophy of the twentieth century is a matter of being surrounded by trees to such an extent that it is difficult to make out the shape of the woods as a whole. Nevertheless, despite all the diversity of movements and schools into which they are divided, we can still make out that philosophy in our times has a land of unity. In the first place, since philosophy never develops in a vacuum but is part of the ongoing culture, all the various schools of twentieth-century philosophy have, as it were, a twentieth-century look. This distinctive look results from the fact that all twentieth-century philosophers, however much they differ philosophically, are resonating with and responding to the deep concerns of the society of which they are a part—its ambivalence toward science, its preoccupation with language, its worry over consciousness, and its loss of confidence...