Minding the Gap

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In this sweeping volume, Christopher Norris challenges the notion that productive engagement between mainstream analytic philosophers and post-Kantian continental thinkers is impossible. He argues that this perspective stems from a limiting view that emerged with logical positivism. Norris uncovers shared concerns often overlooked due to parochial interests and the desire to delineate separate philosophical territories. He critiques the analytic tradition's rejection of Husserlian phenomenology and its dismissal of what was deemed "psychologistic" approaches to meaning, knowledge, and truth. These issues, he contends, have reemerged from the era of logical empiricism to the present. Norris provides critical readings of philosophers such as Quine, Kuhn, Davidson, Putnam, Rorty, Dummett, Nagel, and McDowell, while discussing Wittgenstein's influence and its detrimental effect on theories of knowledge. On the continental side, he advocates for a reassessment of Husserl's phenomenological project, exploring its relevance to contemporary Anglo-American debates in epistemology and philosophy of science. He also examines Bachelard and Canguilhem as alternatives to Kuhnian paradigms. Through two chapters on Derrida, Norris delves into deconstruction's "supplementary" logic, highlighting the common interests between the two philosophical cultures and the rigor of continental engagement with issues often neglected by Anglophone writers.