Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers: From Structuralism to Postmodernity

by John Lechte

Book Overview

Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers surveys the most important figures who have influenced post-war thought. The reader is guided through structuralism, semiotics, post-Marxism and Annales history, on to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415074088
• ISBN13: 9780415074087
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

a terrific reference

I bought this while beginning grad school in anthropology back in 1995, and still turn to it regularly. There is much to argue with in terms of interpretations of particular authors' work but as a well-documented and concise reference work it can't be beat.

Start Here

From all the critical reviews the book receives here - one must know that something's up. Undoubtedly, Lechte has taken on a massive project. As he states either on Routledge's website or in the intro, the concept emerged as an attempt to write a continuation of Collinson's Fifty Major Philosophers: A Reference Guide (widely used in undergraduate classrooms), to which it is, as intended, a companion volume. Of what do these two books consist? A series of scholarly vignettes on each figure, each no more than five pages (the text is formatted in columns - reference style) in length, followed by a brief bibliography of the thinker's major writings and the foremost academic studies. In short, the book attempts to provide a solid, fairly wide-ranging, and most importantly, quick reference, aiming for precision and breadth, rather than depth. In this intent, the book succeeds, admirably. Where else, in English, are you going to find brief but incisive descriptions of the major concepts of this important and influential collection of thinkers, whose names are well-known, but whose thought, for various reasons (not the least of which is the notorious complexity of their writing), remains generally obscure? Lechte here attempts an overview of basically four influential movements in 20th century philosophy: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Post (or Neo) - Marxism, Post-Modernism. Why are major thinkers of some of the seemingly more important schools such as Phenomenology, Existentialism, Analytic Philosophy excluded? Well, many of the "key thinkers" in these areas (in many ways continuations of 19th century thought) are discussed in Collinson: notably Marx, Heidegger, Sartre, Russell, Wittgenstein, James, and Quine. The idea is that the two books form a set. This condition is evidently maddening to many of the reviewers here, who wish that Lechte had attempted more. But, we must remember, that Lechte is providing a companion volume which compliments Collinson's. He is not trying to give a comprehensive genealogy of 20th century thought, rather a guide to contemporary thought. I grant, however, that, as some familiarity the work of such figures as Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger is essential to understanding many of the ideas of the thinkers discussed, Lechte is forced to perform a juggling act in which he is sometimes more, sometimes less successful. In the new edition, which I have not read as yet, he addresses a few of these thinkers directly, and covers 21st century developments such as the work of Butler and Zizek. Another of the shortcomings of this svelte and well-proportioned study - unavoidable in a sense - is that a number of the figures are discussed in a limited dimension of their work. The reviewer who complains about the coverage of Chomsky is correct, and I would add that history will recognize Chomsky as an important but lesser figure in the Structuralist debate, and perhaps the greatest of late twentieth century Neo-Marxist

A good but biased survey of thought and how to check out surveys of thought.

Any good survey of thought in any discipline or of any particular period ought to meet a few critieria to be highly useful. 1. It must be representative. 2. It must be more descriptive rather than judgmental in its exposition. 2. It must be informative. 3. It must be concise. 5. It must be lucid. 6. It must set the expectation right. This survey of contemporary thought meets 4 of these 6 criterion. However it fails to be representative, which I believe is the most important chracteristic of a survey of thought. It also sets the expectation wrong with the phrase 'Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers'. It fails to be representative in the following few ways: A. Most thinkers are French. B. Most thinkers are those who rose to prominence in 1970s and were on wane in the 1990s. C. Most thinkers are from philosophy. D. Some thinkers celebrated here have hardly any widespread influence on contemporary thought like Canguillhem, Cavailles, Pateman, LeDeouff et al. Nor are these thinkers originators of any breakthrough ideas. E. Some thinkers who have had a major influence on contemporary thought like Giddens, Elias and Luhmann in sociology, Alisdair MacIntyre et al. in philosophy, have not been represented. 6. Written about ten years ago, it is already a little dated with new thinkers like Alain Badiou, Richard Rorty, Daniel Dennett, Roberto Magngabeira Unger, David Chalmers, Michael Walzer, George Sher, Antonio Negri et al., who rose to international proimenence in social sciences/philosophy in the 1990s, not being covered. 7. Scientists will hate this book. It makes it seem as if thought is only social science. That stated, there are also significant merits of this work which makes it worth reading. 1. I had not heard about influential thinkers like Deleuze/Guattari, Lyotard and others before reading this book. 2. This book gives a very good, concise and lucid overview of the thought of the thinkers selected (irrespective of the bias) in the tradition of Diane Collinson's work (which provided the model for this). 3. The trends covered here are certainly the more dominant or controversial trends rising to prominence in recent decades (in social sciences, especially philosophy). 4. Many (but not all) of the trends/thinkers covered have had a cross-domain influence, although they originated in philosophy. Perhaps this book would have been more satisfactory if it had been titiled right, maybe Fifty Key French Post-Modern and Miscellaneous Thinkers. With its current title, this book has the bias of leading the reader towards developing an interest in post-modern thinkers. If taken as a reference bible it would opens reader's minds to new thought but end up closing their minds with post-modern rantings. For a good survey of thought, the readers may also consult some of my favourite sources for catching up with information important thinkers (in areas as indicated in brackets): 1. Thinkers of the Twentieth Century (all subjects till from 1900 to 1970s/198

A treasure of my life

This book is the treasure of my life. I have the first print of this book for a couple of years. This book could give you clear understanding of the philosophers' thinking without reading the original text. This is the only book in encyclopedia format that I know, can acheive this goal. This book is a must for philosophy, music and art students.

No, Derrida is not a Gallic insult: Lit Theory 101

As a student in my final semester of art school, I keep Lechte on my shelf next to other essential texts: Berger's Ways of Seeing; McLoud's Understanding Comics; Forward Through The Rearview Mirror; and Braudy and Cohen's Introduction to Film Theory. Like these other books, Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers is a valuable and succinct introduction to elements of our cultural landscape. Although at first I found the author's style intimidating (not to mention the topic), I quickly was not only put at ease with the subject, but was also engaged and excited by the ideas presented. Soon, I was scribbling in the margins my reactions and thoughts. By presenting various schools of thought and their proponents in a concise yet rigorous manner, Lechte enables the novice reader to join the discouse of current theory. By the end of the book, I had put aside my stereo-type of current philosophers being obscure, incomprehensible, and French (well, they are still French, but two out of three isn't bad). The book's organizational structure makes it an excellent reference volume and the further readings sections are especially usefull for both introductory and advanced students of the subject.