Continental philosophy is a term that originated among English-speaking philosophers to describe various philosophical traditions strongly influenced by certain 19th and 20th century philosophers from mainland Europe.^[1] It is typically distinguished from analytic philosophy. The traditions comprising continental philosophy usually include phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-modernism, deconstruction, French feminism, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, German idealism, Hegelianism, some branches of Marxism, and the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Twentieth-Century French Philosophy is of particular significance for many of these traditions. For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... Analytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to prominence during the 20th Century. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts. ... Structuralism is a set of theories in the humanities, social sciences and economics. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... In contemporary philosophy and social sciences, the term deconstruction denotes a process by which the texts and languages of (particularly) Western philosophy appear to shift and complicate in meaning when read in light of the assumptions they suggest about and absences they reveal within themselves. ... French feminism (which is a phrase mostly used in English-speaking countries) refers to the work of a group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the early 1990s. ... In the humanities and social sciences, critical theory has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... German Idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (IPA:  ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian, generally recognized as the first existentialist philosopher. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: ), a Prussian-born philosopher, began his academic career as a philologist and produced critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science. ... // Twentieth-century French philosophy is a strand of contemporary philosophy generally associated with post-ww2 French thinkers, although it is directly influenced by previous philosophical movements. ...

History

The term "continental philosophy" was first widely used to describe university courses in the 1970s, emerging as a collective name for the philosophies then widespread in France and Germany, such as phenomenology, existentialism, structuralism, and post-structuralism.^[2] It thus came to be adopted by English-speaking philosophers influenced by such schools.

However, the distinction may have existed some time before that. Some scholars trace the distinction to the late 19th century, when Brentano, Husserl, and Reinach proposed a new philosophical method of phenomenology, a development 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").^[3] Other scholars,^[4] however, see the break beginning a century earlier, in the reception of the work of Immanuel Kant, the most recent philosopher considered canonical in both traditions. This dating of the split—to the start of the nineteenth century—is supported by the dismissive attitude adopted by Russell and Moore toward post-Kantian idealist philosophers such as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.^[5] There are some famous people named Brentano or von Brentano: Bernard von Brentano, novelist Clemens Brentano, poet and novelist, brother of Bettina von Arnim (b. ... Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859 - April 26, 1938), philosopher, was born into a Jewish family in Prossnitz, Moravia (Prostejov, Czech Republic), Empire of Austria-Hungary. ... Reinach is the German Jewish family which emigrated to France in the first half of the nineteenth century. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (8 November 1848, Wismar – 26 July 1925, Bad Kleinen, IPA: ) was a German mathematician who became a logician and philosopher. ... Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, and mathematician. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (May 19, 1762 - January 27, 1814) has significance in the history of Western philosophy as one of the progenitors of German idealism and as a follower of Kant. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (January 27, 1775 - August 20, 1854) was a German philosopher. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ...

20th century

As the institutional roots of "continental philosophy" in many cases directly descend from those of phenomenology,^[6] Edmund Husserl has always been a canonical figure in continental philosophy. Nonetheless, Husserl is also a respected subject of study in the analytic tradition.^[7] Husserl's notion of a noema (a non-psychological content of thought), his correspondence with Gottlob Frege, and his investigations into the nature of logic continue to generate interest among analytic philosophers. Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, Prostějov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... The noema (plural: noemata) is the mental equivalent of a schema. ... Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (8 November 1848, Wismar – 26 July 1925, Bad Kleinen, IPA: ) was a German mathematician who became a logician and philosopher. ...

A particularly polemical illustration of some differences between "analytic" and "continental" styles of philosophy can be found in Rudolf Carnap's "Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language", which argues that Heidegger's lecture "What Is Metaphysics?" violates logical syntax to create nonsensical pseudo-statements.^[8] With the rise of Hitler, many of Germany's philosophers, especially those of Jewish descent or leftist political sympathies (such as many in the Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School), fled to England, America or the USSR. Those philosophers who remained—if they remained in academia at all—had to reconcile themselves to Nazi control of the universities. For example, the most prominent German philosopher who stayed in Germany, Heidegger, enthusiastically embraced Nazism when it came to power. Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (May 18, 1891, Ronsdorf, Germany – September 14, 1970, Santa Monica, California) was an influential philosopher who was active in central Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Moritz Schlick around 1930 The Vienna Circle (in German: der Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around Moritz Schlick when he was called to the Vienna University in 1922, organized in a philosophical association named Verein Ernst Mach (Ernst Mach Society). ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... National Socialism redirects here. ...

Both before and after World War II, there was a growth of interest in German philosophy in France. On the one hand, the role of the French Communist Party in liberating France meant that it became, for a brief period, the largest political movement in the country. The attendant interest in communism translated into an interest in Marx and Hegel, who were both now studied extensively for the first time in the conservative French university system. On the other hand, there was a major trend towards the ideas of the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, and toward his former assistant Martin Heidegger. Most important in this popularization of phenomenology was the author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who called his philosophy existentialism. (See Twentieth-Century French Philosophy) Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Representation of a university class, 1350s. ... In philosophy and sociology a phenomenologist applies the method termed phenomenology by Edmund Husserl to analyze nature, reality or social interactions. ... Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, Prostějov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (pronounced ) was an influential German philosopher, best known as the author of Being and Time (1927). ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... // Twentieth-century French philosophy is a strand of contemporary philosophy generally associated with post-ww2 French thinkers, although it is directly influenced by previous philosophical movements. ...

Continental philosophy in English-speaking countries

While it derives from the philosophical traditions of non-Anglophone Europe, much "continental" philosophy at least since the 1980s has been taught and written in the United States and the United Kingdom. Continental philosophy has a central place in university philosophy departments in Germany and France. In the English-speaking world, analytic philosophy -- and German Idealism, when it is taught at all -- are generally taught in philosophy departments, while some movements in continental philosophy are taught in various other departments within the humanities and social sciences. Movements most commonly taught include post-structuralism, feminism, more recent Marxism, and relevant parts of phenomenology and psychoanalysis. In the humanities, the continental influence is often referred to as literary theory or critical theory); departments taking particular interest in continental approaches include literature, film, architecture, and art history. In the social sciences (where it is sometimes known as social theory or critical social theory), those departments or subfields include sociology, social anthropology, and social psychology, as well as certain perspectives within qualitative research methodology. The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... German Idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... The humanities are those academic disciplines which study the human condition using methods that are largely analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences. ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... In the humanities and social sciences, critical theory has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αρχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ... This article is about the academic discipline of art history. ... This article is a discussion of critical theory as the phrase is used by the Frankfurt School. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, is one of four commonly recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. ... Social psychology is often conceived to be the study of how individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others. ... Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. ...

There has been significant interaction between the continental and analytic traditions. The impact of 19th century continental philosophy on 20th century ethicists who are often labelled "analytic" has been particularly important. To name only two examples, Bernard Williams, perhaps the greatest British moral philosopher of the 20th century, was decisively influenced by Nietzsche, while John Rawls was seriously engaged with the study of Hegel's moral philosophy. Moreover, several continental figures, namely Jacques Derrida and Jürgen Habermas have engaged with analytical philosophy of language, particularly the work of John Searle and J. L. Austin. Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (September 21, 1929 – June 10, 2003) was an English moral philosopher, noted by The Times as the most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American philosopher, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, and The Law of Peoples. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (born June 18, 1929 in Düsseldorf) is a German philosopher, political scientist and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory, best known for his concept of the public sphere. ... Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. ... John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932) is Mills Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason. ... John Langshaw Austin (March 28, 1911 - February 8, 1960) was a philosopher of language, who developed much of the current theory of speech acts. ...

References

1. ^ Simon Critchley and William Schroder (eds.), A Companion to Continental Philosophy (Blackwell Publishing, 1998), p. 4.
2. ^ Simon Critchley, Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 38.
3. ^ See, e.g., Michael Dummett, The Origins of Analytical Philosophy (Harvard University Press, 1994), or C. Prado, A House Divided: Comparing Analytic and Continental Philosophy (Prometheus/Humanity Books, 2003).
4. ^ Critchley 2001, op. cit.
5. ^ E.g., Russell's comments in My Philosophical Development (Allen & Unwin, 1959), p. 62: "Hegelians had all kinds of arguments to prove this or that was not 'real'. Number, space, time, matter, were all professedly convicted of being self-contradictory. Nothing was real, so we were assured, except the Absolute, which could think only of itself since there was nothing else for it to think of and which thought eternally the sort of things that idealist philosophers thought in their books."
6. ^ E.g., the largest academic organization devoted to furthering the study of continental philosophy is the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.
7. ^ Kenny, Anthony (ed). The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy. ISBN 0-19-285440-2
8. ^ Gregory, Wanda T. Heidegger, Carnap and Quine at the Crossroads of Language, and Abraham D. Stone. Heidegger and Carnap on the Overcoming of Metaphysics

Further reading

• Simon Critchley, Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press (2001) ISBN 0-19-285359-7
• A. Cutrofello, Continental Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge (2005)