Everything about Contemporary Philosophy totally explained
Contemporary philosophy is the period in the history of philosophy that began at the end of the
nineteenth century with the rise of
analytic and
continental philosophy and that extends into the present. Continental philosophy began with the work of
Brentano,
Husserl, and
Reinach on the development of the philosophical method of
phenomenology. This development was roughly contemporaneous with work by
Gottlob Frege and
Bertrand Russell inaugurating a new philosophical method based on the analysis of language via modern logic (thus the term "analytic philosophy").
Prelude
In the 1950s, academic philosophy throughout the Western world was preoccupied by several philosophical trends and schools, which were, more or less, clearly demarcated.
In
Europe excluding
Britain,
process philosophy,
existentialism and
existential phenomenology were leading philosophical movements. In English-speaking countries, academic
analytic philosophy was pre-occupied with the later writings of
Ludwig Wittgenstein and
ordinary language. In
Canada and the
United States,
pragmatism as practised by
John Dewey also shared the philosophical scene with ordinary language.
Philosophy in the Soviet Union was mostly
nihilist,
Marxist and neo-Marxist, such as
Marxism-Leninism and
Stalinism.
The 1960s and 1970s overturned the dominance of the aforementioned schools. The revival of the writings of
Ferdinand de Saussure produced
structuralism and its associated critics (
poststructuralism,
deconstruction), which occupies European philosophy today. Ordinary language philosophy declined in popularity in the 1970s, giving rise to an emphasis on the
philosophy of mind and
philosophy of language. Other analytic philosophers, such as
Richard Rorty, even called for a major overhaul of the analytic philosophic.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics remains a fertile area for research, having recovered from the attacks of
A.J. Ayer and the
logical positivists. And though many were inherited from previous decades, the debate remains fierce. The philosophy of fiction, the problem of empty names, and the debate over existence's status as a property have all risen out of relative obscurity to become central concerns, while perennial issues such as free will, possible worlds, and the
philosophy of time have had new life breathed into them.
Science has also played an increasingly significant role in metaphysics. The theory of special relativity has had a profound effect on the philosophy of time, and quantum physics is routinely discussed in the free will debate. The weight given to scientific evidence is largely due to widespread commitments among philosophers to
scientific realism and
naturalism.
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is another area that has slowed down over the course of the last four decades, as evidenced by the fact that few major figures in contemporary philosophy treat it as a primary research area. Indeed, while the debate remains fierce, it's still strongly under the influence of those figures from the first half of the century:
Gottlob Frege,
Bertrand Russell,
Ludwig Wittgenstein,
J.L. Austin,
Alfred Tarski,
W.V.O. Quine, and
Donald Davidson.
Contemporary philosophy does retain its penchant for linguistic issues, however, as a topic underpinning all other areas of philosophy. In Europe, for example, philosophers such as
Michel Foucault,
Jacques Derrida, and
Jean-François Lyotard have all made significant contributions to poststructuralism and deconstruction, with language analysis constituting an important aspect of both their arguments and their conclusions. Similarly, the debate between
Eternalists and
Presentists—though still heavily influenced by the philosophy of science—has increasingly been put in linguistic terms and focused on linguistic issues.
Philosophy of mind
John Searle suggests that the obsession with linguistic philosophy of the last century has been superseded by an emphasis on the
philosophy of mind, in which
functionalism is currently the dominant theory. In recent years, a central focus for research in the philosophy of mind has been
consciousness. And while there's a general consensus for the global neuronal workspace model of consciousness, there are many views as to how the specifics work out. The best known theories are
Daniel Dennett's
heterophenomenology,
Fred Dretske and
Michael Tye's
representationalism, and the higher-order theories of either
David M. Rosenthal—who advocates a higher-order thought (HOT) model—or
David Armstrong and
William Lycan—who advocate a higher-order perception (HOP) model). An alternative higher-order theory, the higher-order global states (HOGS) model, is offered by Robert van Gulick.
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is enjoying a rebirth after decades of neglect in academia. A significant portion of philosophy of religion is dedicated to Ludwig Wittgenstein's interpretation of
Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy, and whether there's such a thing as
Wittgensteinian fideism. Both
New Wittgensteinians and
postmodernists have participated in this discussion. In 2006,
Daniel Dennett's
Breaking the Spell: religion as a natural phenomenon discussed the taboo on religion, and proposed opening it up to scientific inquiry.
Philosophy of science
Reacting against the earlier philosopher of science Sir
Karl Popper, who had suggested the
falsifiability criterion on which to judge the demarcation between science and non-science, discussions in
philosophy of science in the last forty years were dominated by
social constructivist and
cognitive relativist theories of science.
Thomas Samuel Kuhn is one of the major philosophers of science representative of the former theory, while
Paul Feyerabend is representative of the latter theory. Philosophy of biology has also undergone considerable growth, particularly due to the considerable debate in recent years over
evolution. Here again, Daniel Dennett and his 1995 book
Darwin's Dangerous Idea stand at the foreground of this debate.
Political philosophy
Although
Marxism continues to be a major aspect of contemporary political philosophy, it must now compete for attention with various modern theories of liberalism. Particularly important are
John Rawls' theory of justice as fairness (as presented in his book
A Theory of Justice) and
Robert Nozick's libertarian perspective (as presented in his
Anarchy, State, and Utopia). Recent decades have also seen the rise of several critiques of liberalism, including the
feminist critiques of
Catherine MacKinnon and
Andrea Dworkin, the
communitarian critiques of
Michael Sandel and
Alasdair MacIntyre (though it should be noted both shy away from the term), and the
multiculturalist critiques of
Amy Gutmann and
Charles Taylor. Another important—if controversial—figure in contemporary political philosophy is
Jürgen Habermas, whose social theory is a blend of social science, Marxism,
neo-Kantianism, and American
pragmatism.
Epistemology
Owing largely to a seminal paper of
Gettier, epistemology has seen a rebirth in the analytic philosophy of the last 50 years. A large portion of current epistemological research aims to resolve the problems that Gettier's examples presented to the traditional justified true belief model of knowledge. Recent work has also investigated basic knowledge and the role of philosophical intuitions in epistemology.
Schools of thought
Functionalism
In philosophy of mind, functionalism is a philosophical position holding that mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role — that is, their causal relations to other mental states, sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs. Since mental states are identified by a functional role, they're said to be multiply realizable; in other words, they're able to be manifested in various systems, even perhaps computers, so long as the system performs the appropriate functions.
Logical positivism
Logical positivism (or logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world, with a version of rationalism, the idea that our knowledge includes a component that isn't derived from observation.
Moral particularism
Moral particularism is the view that there are no moral principles and that moral judgement can be found only as one decides particular cases. Most notably defended by Jonathan Dancy in his Ethics Without Principles (2004).
Naturalism
Naturalism is the view that the scientific method (hypothesize, predict, test, repeat) is the only effective way to investigate reality. Most notably defended by
W.V. Quine's with his work to reduce
epistemology to
psychology.
Ordinary Language Philosophy
Ordinary language philosophy is a philosophical school that approached traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by forgetting what words actually mean in a language.
Physicalism
In philosophy of mind and metaphysics, physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things. The term was coined by Otto Neurath in a series of early 20th century essays on the subject.
Epiphenomenalism
In philosophy of mind, epiphenomenalism is a view according to which some or all mental states are mere epiphenomena (side-effects or by-products) of physical states of the world.
Virtue Ethics
The contemporary revival of virtue theory is frequently traced to the philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe's 1958 essay, Modern Moral Philosophy and to Philippa Foot, who published a collection of essays in 1978 entitled Virtues and Vices.
Neopragmatism
Neopragmatism, sometimes called
linguistic pragmatism, is a recent (since the 1960s) philosophical term for philosophy that reintroduces many concepts from pragmatism. It has been associated with a variety of thinkers, among them Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, W.V.O. Quine, Donald Davidson, and Stanley Fish though none of these figures have called themselves "neopragmatists".
Postmodern philosophy
Postmodern philosophy is a new and complex trend of thought. Beginning as a critique of Continental philosophy, it was heavily influenced by phenomenology, structuralism and existentialism, including the writings of
Søren Kierkegaard,
Friedrich Nietzsche, and
Martin Heidegger. It was also influenced to some degree by the later
Ludwig Wittgenstein's criticisms of traditional philosophy, including earlier analytic philosophy. Postmodern philosophy is skeptical of many of the values and bases of analytic philosophy; for instance a postmodernist might disavow that the complex system of meanings embodied in normal or philosophical language could be represented in logical annotation (some might even disavow any traditional notion of "meaning" altogether).
Contemporary Philosophers
Popular philosophy
Philosophy has re-entered popular culture through the work of authors such as
Alain de Botton and
Peter Singer. This trend is reinforced by the recent increase in films with philosophical content. Some films, such as
Fight Club,
eXistenZ,
The Matrix trilogy,
Little Miss Sunshine, and
Waking Life have philosophical themes underpinning their overarching plots. Other films attempt to be overtly philosophical, such as
I ♥ Huckabees.
Further Information
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