The Will to Consensus

Manfred Frank has often claimed that French philosophers and thinkers know next to nothing about contemporary German philosophy, and several years ago he observed that the Germans were unfamiliar with French philosophy. He has continually tried to initiate a dialogue between the two philosophical cultures, that is to say between what he calls neo-structuralism on the one hand, and hermeneutics on the other. Certain German philosophers indeed claim that modern French philosophy is irrational and mystical and that only German philosophy is rational. It is a true swing of the pendulum if we hark back to those days when Germany was the romantic and mysterious counter-pole to a rationalistic and classicistic France.' It is as though Manfred Frank and others are saying to contemporary Germany or to the young German students about France what Michelet once said about Germany: Le monde germinique est dangereux pour moi, Ii y a la' un tout puissant lotus qui fait oublier la patrie.2

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