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Is the Royaumont Colloquium the Locus Classicus of the Divide Between Analytic and Continental Philosophy? Reply to Overgaard

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09608788.2012.689751

1469-3526

Andreas Vrahimis,

Historical and Literary Studies

Abstract In his recent article, titled 'Royaumont Revisited', Overgaard challenges Dummett's view that one needs to go as far back as the late nineteenth century in order to discover examples of genuine dialogue between 'analytic' and 'continental' philosophy. Instead, Overgaard argues that in the 1958 Royaumont colloquium, generally judged as a failed attempt at communication between the two camps, one can find some elements which may be utilized towards re-establishing a dialogue between these two sides. Yet, emphasising this image of Royaumont as a kind of battleground between 'analytic' and 'continental' philosophy obscures the plurality of philosophical approaches involved. Royaumont was the meeting point of more than two philosophical traditions, as can be shown by the divergent interests of its participants. Thus, though the potential for rapprochement between Oxford 'linguistic philosophy' and a certain strand of phenomenological thought may indeed be found among the discussions that took place during the colloquium, one should keep in mind that such rapprochement took place in the context of a meeting between, among others: continental 'analytics', Anglophone non-'analytics', French historians of philosophy, 'analytic' opponents of Oxford philosophy, Franciscan phenomenologists, and Oxonians who called their work 'phenomenology'. Keywords: Royaumontanalytic continental divideOvergaardphenomenologyOxford linguistic analysis Notes 1This records the bilingual dialogue in French translation, with future translators confusingly translating many texts back from their French translation into English. Though most of the English texts were reprinted in collected works by their authors in the 1960s and 1970s, some important texts and records of discussions remain to this day untranslated. 2This sentence does not appear in the original dialogue, and as far as I can tell, it is invented by Beck (Beck et al. Citation1962, 7); Merleau-Ponty clearly speaks of Russell and Wittgenstein's 'programme' (Beck et al. Citation1962, 95). 3Cf. Beck (Citation1962, 98). 4Beck does not cite the page numbers. 5See also Merleau-Ponty (Citation2005, 67). 6Glendinning (Citation2006, 73). Cf. Overgaard (Citation2010, 901–2). 7See also Glock (Citation2008, 62–3). 8Of course, the inclusion of Ryle at the head of this list is problematic, given his dissociation from the type of philosophy that Austin was doing; furthermore, both Strawson's and Urmson's work clearly differ from Austinian 'linguistic phenomenology'. 9These are all names Overgaard (Citation2010, 901) includes in his list of continentals. 10Jean Wahl, who might have been involved in organizing the colloquium, was present at the first announcement of the divide between Anglophone and Francophone philosophy, made by Bataille in 1951. Bataille's verdict that a 'sort of abyss' (1986, 80) divides English and French philosophy was prompted by his encounter with A. J. Ayer, with whom he and Merleau-Ponty (both Ayer's personal friends) came to a disagreement over the question of whether the sun existed before humans; see Bataille (Citation1986); cf. Himanka (Citation2000). Note that Ayer, (Merleau-Ponty Citation2005, 63–4), Wahl (e.g. Beck et al. Citation1962, 9–10) and Merleau-Ponty (Merleau-Ponty Citation2005, 65–8) all played a central role in disseminating the idea of the divide at Royaumont, through their attempts at reconciling what they considered to be the two sides of the divide. 11Taylor and Ayer (Citation1959). 12See e.g. Taylor (Citation1964). 13The 'Philosophers into Europe' series of symposia, organised in 1969 by the University of Southampton, had as part of its mission statement the attempt to 'avoid […] a repetition of the Royaumont Colloquium' (Mays and Brown 1972, 20); see Mays and Brown (1972). 14Cf. Urmson (Citation1992), Strawson (Citation1992), Merleau-Ponty (Citation2005, 67). 15Apostel (Citation1962). 16Beth (Citation1962). 17See Batens (Citation1996, 137). 18Cf. Feferman and Feferman (Citation2004, 181, 206, 249–52). 19See Gross and Dearin (Citation2003, 1–13). Perelman had been Apostel's supervisor and, together with Devaux, they formed a Belgian 'school' of philosophers affiliated with (and also critical of) early developments in 'analytic' philosophy; see Gochet (Citation1975). 20Cf. Whitehead (Citation1939, Citation1969), Russell (Citation1965, Citation1969, 1971a,b), Devaux (Citation1967, Citation2007). 21Cf. Bocheński (Citation1961, Citation1963). 22See Wahl (Citation1925, Citation1932). Wahl's commentary on Whitehead and Russell had been particularly influential on Deleuze; cf. Sellars (Citation2007, 555). 23See Ryle (Citation1970, 8–9). 24See Berger (Citation1972). 25Cf. Cournand and Lévy (Citation1973). 26See Brun (Citation1965, Citation1981, Citation1988). 27See Alquié (Citation1950, Citation1955, 1974, 1981). Cf. Deleuze and Parnet (2007, 12). 28Umberto Galimberti (Beck et al. Citation1962, 365) is another exception, though his contribution to the colloque consists of one brief comment. 29See Van Breda and Taminiaux (Citation1956, Citation1959); Van Breda (Citation1959). 30Van Breda (Citation1959). 31In the English translation, the quotation marks are dropped (Strawson Citation1992, 325). 32Van Breda in fact talks, more subtly, of 'les penseurs du Continent ou du moins entre beaucoup de représentants de la pensée sur le continent d'un cote, et les milieux philosophiques anglo-saxons de l'autre' (Beck et al. Citation1962, 127), i.e. of multiple entities rather than two mutually exclusive and opposed monolithic traditions. 33Beck et al. (Citation1962, 344). 34As noted above, the English translation of Van Breda's comments misses his acknowledgment of this multiplicity. 35See Acton (Citation1939, Citation1947), Ryle et al. (Citation1932). 36Cf. Gewirth (Citation1996, 28–9). 37See Beck et al. (Citation1962, 369). 38Williams (Citation2006, 201) describes himself as 'both deniably and undeniably, an analytic philosopher'. 39See e.g. Hacker (Citation1996), contra Soames (Citation2003). 40See e.g. Urmson (Citation1992), Austin (Citation1963), Merleau-Ponty (Citation2005, 67). See also e.g. Austin (Citation1962). Cf. Stroll (Citation2000, 146–8), Rée (Citation1993). 41E.g. Urmson (Citation1992), Ryle (Citation1971) Strawson (Citation1992). 42See e.g. Gochet (Citation1975). 43See Smith (Citation2006). 44See Rée (Citation1993).