Literary Philosophy and Philosophical Literature

Recently, a rather silly Substack article prompted people in my internet circles to debate philosophy. The article, from Bentham’s Bulldog, was a rehash of old analytic complaints about continental philosophy and notable mostly for being reductive and error-ridden. It’s the kind of article where you find claims such as that Hegel—a German philosopher who didn’t write or speak English—is guilty of “dreadful perversion of the English language.”1 The article was rebuked enough by others that I don’t think I need to say more.2 The idea of cleanly cleaving Western philosophy into two rival camps is silly anyway. Many philosophers are informed by both traditions, and continental philosophy is a loose term for a vast swath of different ideas and traditions.3 What was more interesting to me were the related discussions of philosophy and literature.