The Rise and Fall of German Philosophy

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Notes

¹The controversy is reflected in the biobibliographical appendix. In the entry for Heidegger we read that he ‘is generally regarded as the leading Western philosopher of the twentieth century’ (781). Wittgenstein is introduced as ‘By common consent the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century’ (812). If ‘leading’ means ‘most influential’, then there is no inconsistency here: the greatest philosopher need not be the most influential. But there is some degree of tension.

²For the record, these occur on pp. 197, 230, 396, 421, 589, 636 and 772, the most delightful being the transformation of Mill's ‘homopathic’ laws into ‘homeopathic’ laws in the chapter on vitalism and emergence (636).