Contemporary Philosophy

Contemporary philosophy is understood as all the philosophical thought that has been developed after modern philosophy. In other words, it covers the philosophy of the late 19th century and early 20th century to the present day. Thus, it is usually grouped into two great schools: continental philosophy, from Europe; and analytical philosophy, coming from Anglo-Saxon countries. In this way, it is made up of the philosophical currents of existentialism, phenomenology, logical positivism and post-structuralism, among others.

 

What are the contemporary philosophical schools?

The philosophical thought from the 20th century is divide into two great currents: analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. These are then made up of the following schools:

 

Analytical Philosophy:

Experimental philosophy: which focused its line of thought on empirical information, which is why it uses surveys and different types of measurement to answer the great questions of philosophy.

Logical Positivism: Also known as the Vienna Circle, it sought to make philosophy a science through empirical verification and analytical methods.

Naturalism: which thought of nature as the basis of reality, so that consciousness was understood as an entity in interdependence with natural causes and forces.

Philosophy of ordinary language:

Quietism: who focused his efforts on making philosophy a therapeutic method.

Post-analytic philosophy (pragmatism): which sought to separate itself from analytical philosophy and make philosophy a useful object for social progress.

Continental Philosophy:

Deconstruction: which focused on demonstrating that all speech had paradoxes, so it could be deconstructed. That is to say that the destruction of the text or the discourse is not sought, but to demonstrate how it is brought to that state.

Existentialism: that focused on human existence, understanding that this preceded the essence and, therefore, subjectivity prevailed over the objective.

Phenomenology: that focused on studying reality from its manifestation.

Post-structuralism: which was born in opposition to structuralism, and which had an influence on other disciplines such as literary criticism, history, anthropology or sociology.

Postmodern philosophy: which was born in opposition to the totalizing and fundamental ideas of Western philosophy.

Social constructionism: which studies the structures of society as a cultural artifact or an invention of a particular society.

Critical theory: that focused on studying society from the statements of Freud and Marx.

 

Main thinkers of contemporary Philosoph

Among the main thinkers of the 19th century, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Auguste Comte, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Edmund Husserl and Gottlob Frege can be highlighted. While in the 20th century the following philosophers can be highlighted: Sigmund Freud, Ernst March, John Dewey, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Karl Jaspers, Albert Camus, Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Claude Lévi Strauss, and Karl Popper.