One strength of this admirable introduction to modern German philosophy for English--speaking readers is the masterly manner in which Andrew Bowie manages to fairly structure an abundance of illuminating ideas. Jurgen Habermas Bowie provides an excellent overview which will be useful for general readers, students and specialists. The Philosophersa Magazine Where Bowie really shines ... is in introducing minor figures such as Herder and Hamann and showing how they prefigure the ideas of Schelling, Heidegger, Wittgenstein and contemporary analytic thinkers such as John McDowell and Robert Brandom. His chapter on the Early Romantics is equally clear and far--reaching. Times Higher Education Supplement This is probably the most knowledgeable presentation in English of the history of the German contribution to so--called continental philosophy from Herder and Kant to Gadamer and Habermas. Andrew Bowie is an exceptional scholar of German Romanticism and Idealism as well as of the hermeneutic tradition and critical theory of the twentieth century. Manfred Frank, Eberhard--Karls--Universitat Tubingen This book has remarkable breadth. Not only does it cover a larger period of German thought than other similar books, but it also has a genuine appreciation for so--called second--rank figures (e.g., Herder, Schlegel, Schelling) and for a range of issues concerning aesthetics and society that go far beyond the narrow focus on epistemology and metaphysics that one typically finds in philosophical overviews. Karl Ameriks, University of Notre Dame
