Difference between French and English thinkers

You summarise French Marxists very well and non-English Marxists too. But if you were talking about English Marxists and French non-Marxists your argument could be reversed.

What about Tom Paine, Gerald Winstanley and John Lilburne?

When I think of French philosophers, I tend to think much closer to our own time in the 20th century. You see French thinking mirror the state of French civilisation. French thinking increasingly engages in nihilism, a brilliant example is Albert Camus's book The Outsider. I wonder perhaps whether this is a reflection of French attitudes as their homeland is conquered, their land ravaged and finally most of their empire breaks away. Such a mode of thinking fits in nicely with a people disillusioned in the wake of such a blow to their prestige.

Finally, the concept of post-modernism with Foucault develops, where the individualistic perception of reality is taken a step further from nihilism's rejection of conventional social values.

Regarding Orwell, I see his works as being similar to Shakespeare in a way. They try to warn society about what their government may turn into, Shakespeare warned of violent revolution and Orwell warns against the evil of totalitarianism.

In this way, I see English thinkers as being positivist. They seek to mobilise action for the common good through creating awareness of possible dangers. I see French thinkers encouraging an individualistic perspective, seeking comfort and joy in one's own perception than that which is commonly accepted by the general public as the state of affairs in the world.

Of course, I am certainly no expert, this is simply what jumps out at me when I see the different perspectives.

Well, over the centuries there have been lots of British philosophers who followed French ones, and vice versa, and lots of both who followed Germans.

I'm pretty sure that's true now.

They have all been influential at various times in various places.

Originally posted by Paul At the moment France is the only country with a strong Philosophical tradition and the only country I know where they have philosophy shows on TV and philosophers as celebrites on chat shows.   But I think this subject a little strange, you are comparing Britain's philosophers from the 17th and 18th century to France's from the 18th and not considering philosphers from the two countries from any other era, then asking this to give a picture of the difference between English and French thought. It will hardly give anything but a highly one-eyed  one.

Edited by TheDiplomat - 09-Jun-2007 at 14:07

What makes this tricky if it's generalised to other than named philosophers is that many French and English (not so much Scots) philosophers are heavily influenced by Germans of various schools, especially in the nineteenth century, which, though it's sometimes looked on as the heyday of English liberal, empirical thought, actually includes Germanic philosophers from Carlile to Bradley and co.

Originally posted by gcle2003 What makes this tricky if it's generalised to other than named philosophers is that many French and English (not so much Scots) philosophers are heavily influenced by Germans of various schools, especially in the nineteenth century, which, though it's sometimes looked on as the heyday of English liberal, empirical thought, actually includes Germanic philosophers from Carlile to Bradley and co.   If you stop with the eighteenth century that problem tends to go away a bit.