Contemporary Philosophy

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").

Analytic philosophy
In English-speaking countries, academic analytic philosophy was pre-occupied with the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and ordinary language.[2][3][4] In Canada and the United States, pragmatism as practised by John Dewey also shared the philosophical scene with ordinary language.[5] Philosophy in the Soviet Union was mostly nihilist, Marxist and neo-Marxist, such as Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism.[6]

Ordinary language philosophy declined in popularity in the 1970s, giving rise to an emphasis on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language.[7] Other analytic philosophers, such as Richard Rorty, even called for a major overhaul of the analytic philosophic.[4]


Continental philosophy
In Europe excluding Britain, process philosophy, existentialism and existential phenomenology were leading philosophical movements.[9][10][11]

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.[12] The decline and subsequent fall of the Soviet Union also reduced the influence of Marxism in Soviet philosophy.[6]

History of Western Philosophy
The pages of this section offer a narrative survey of the historical development of Western philosophy. Although some sections are nearly complete, this remains a work in progress; please be patient. For a different approach to the work of individual thinkers, please consult Assembled Philosophers, the Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names, or the Philosophy Timeline.

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Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Speculation and Dispute: The Presocratics ]|[ Socrates
Plato: Soul and Forms ]|[ Society and Virtue ]|[ Education and Justice ]|[ Love
Aristotle: Logic and Physics ]|[ Reality and Knowledge ]|[ Ethics ]|[ Politics
Hellenistic Thought: Cosmos and Morality
Philosophy and Religion: Augustine ]|[ Scholasticism ]|[ Arab and Jewish Thought
Late Scholasticism: Bonaventure and Aquinas ]|[ Scotus and Ockham
Early Modern Philosophy
The Renaissance: Humanism and Science ]|[ Machiavelli ]|[ Hobbes
Descartes: Method ]|[ Doubt and Existence ]|[ Mind and Body ]|[ Cartesianism
Variations: Spinoza and Unity ]|[ Leibniz and Plurality
Locke: Origin of Ideas ]|[ Human Knowledge ]|[ Government
Extensions: Moralists and Bayle ]|[ Berkeley and Immaterialism
Hume: Mitigated Skepticism ]|[ Self and Morality ]|[ Religion
Recent Modern Philosophy
The Enlightenment: British ]|[ Continental
Kant: Synthetic A Priori ]|[ Experience and Reality ]|[ The Moral Law
Absolute Idealism: Fichte and Hegel ]|[ Later Idealists
Social Concerns: Bentham and Mill ]|[ Marx and Engels
Other Reactions: Kierkegaard ]|[ Nietzsche
Pragmatism: Peirce ]|[ James ]|[ Dewey, Mead, & Addams
Contemporary Philosophy
Beginnings: Logic and Mathematics ]|[ Phenomenology
Philosophical Analysis: Moore ]|[ Russell
Alternatives: Realism ]|[ Logical Positivism
Linguistic Analysis: Wittgenstein ]|[ Ryle and Austin ]|[ American Analysis
Existentialism: Heidegger ]|[ Sartre ]|[ de Beauvoir
Postmodernism: Critical Theory ]|[ Deconstruction
Feminism: Theory ]|[ Ethics ]|[ MacKinnon