Twentieth Century European Philosophy by Professor Ed Casey was in most ways beyond me, granted, I did not give it the attention it deserves, ergo there was not much left, but the following lines are supposed to muse about it – for notes on books from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites you could visit my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and/or YouTube channel

 

Twentieth Century European Philosophy by Professor Ed Casey was in most ways beyond me, granted, I did not give it the attention it deserves, ergo there was not much left, but the following lines are supposed to muse about it – for notes on books from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites you could visit my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and/or YouTube channel

 

8 out of 10

 

I have read a few books of philosophy https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-dream-of-reason-history-of.html The Dream of Reason was one of the best, and most recently enjoyed, nonetheless, Twentieth Century European Philosophy was not my cup of tea, perhaps too specialized, and anyway, beyond my comprehension

 

I was going to say I am still in the ancient world from this point of view, but then most people have not reached that level – we were talking in the sauna, and one of those who are erudite, one of the best educated (as far as that goes) did not know about the allegory of the cave, used by Plato, we call him Ammoniac

Or I did, true, he has some weird takes on things, the whole world has seen how Zelensky was kicked out of the White House, insulted and all, but he is the one telling you the ‘way it is’ (Ammoniac I mean) like Chili Palmer https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/get-shorty-by-elmore-leonard-aka.html in Get Shorty

 

It is pointless to try and retort, protest, for he has seen this film somewhere (conspiracy theories) and he uses false arguments, such as that was a visit at the highest level – as if Putin did not have that fighter jets fly over in Alaska, and then Mohamed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the one who butchers journalists, etc.)

One problem, perhaps an objective one, with Twentieth Century European Philosophy is that the two major figures, Martin Heidegger https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/heidegger-in-90-minutes-by-paul.html and Sartre were unpleasant, to say the least, the former was a Nazi, while the latter if not a commie, then a supporter

 

Granted, Heidegger was with Hitler in his first phase, and then seemed to distance himself, but that was not good enough while Sartre said ‘The Russians choose not to travel abroad, it is not true that they are forbidden’, he also has this other, more famous quote, ‘hell is other people’, I am not crazy about him, that is clear

Sartre was a student of Heidegger, the latter said that Sartre ‘confused him with Edmund Husserl’ – there is a thing between Husserl and Heidegger, if the former was the teacher of the latter, they ended up in conflict, while both have been inspired by the same luminary, I can’t remember his name, and google does not give it somehow

 

Intellectuals https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson throws light into the lives of Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Erenst Hemingway, Jean Jacques Rousseau and others and we see that talent does not always associate with kindness, indeed, the question is asked: ‘what would Socrates say?’