Contemporary philosophy
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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").[1]
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[edit] 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.[2][3]
In Europe excluding Britain, process philosophy, existentialism and existential phenomenology were leading philosophical movements.[5][6][7] In English-speaking countries, academic analytic philosophy was pre-occupied with the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and ordinary language.[8][9][10] In Canada and the United States, pragmatism as practised by John Dewey also shared the philosophical scene with ordinary language.[11] Philosophy in the Soviet Union was mostly nihilist, Marxist and neo-Marxist, such as Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism.[12]
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.[13] Ordinary language philosophy declined in popularity in the 1970s, giving rise to an emphasis on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language.[14] Other analytic philosophers, such as Richard Rorty, even called for a major overhaul of the analytic philosophic.[10] The decline and subsequent fall of the Soviet Union also reduced the influence of Marxism in Soviet philosophy.[12]
[edit] Topics
[edit] Ethics
The first half of the twentieth century was marked by the widespread neglect of ethical philosophy and the popularity of skeptical attitudes towards value (e.g. emotivism). During this time, utilitarianism was the only non-skeptical approach to ethics to remain popular. However, as the influence of logical positivism began to wane mid-century, contemporary analytic philosophers began to have a renewed interest in ethics. G.E.M. Anscombe’s 1958 Modern Moral Philosophy sparked a revival of Aristotle's virtue ethical approach and John Rawls’s 1971 A Theory of Justice restored interest in Kantian ethical philosophy. At present, contemporary ethical philosophy is dominated by three schools: utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and Kantianism.
Another major development in the latter half of the twentieth century (c. 1970), has been contemporary ethical philosophy's overwhelming concern with practical applications, especially in relation to environmental issues, animal rights and the many challenges thrown up by advancing medical science.[15][16][17]
[edit] 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.[18][19]
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.[20] The weight given to scientific evidence is largely due to widespread commitments among philosophers to scientific realism and naturalism.
[edit] 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 is 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.
[edit] 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,[21] 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 is a general consensus for the global neuronal workspace model of consciousness,[22] 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.[23]
[edit] 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 is 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Schools of thought
[edit] 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 are said to be multiply realizable; in other words, they are able to be manifested in various systems, even perhaps computers, so long as the system performs the appropriate functions.
[edit] 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 is not derived from observation.
[edit] 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).
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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".
[edit] 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).
[edit] Contemporary Philosophers
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes and references
- ^ 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).
- ^ Popkin, Richard Henry. (1999) The Columbia History of Western Philosophy.
- ^ Kenny, Anthony. (1997) The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy.
- ^ Hubben, William. (1952) Four Prophets of Our Destiny.
- ^ Barrett, William. (1958) Irrational Man.
- ^ Cooper, David Edward. (1999) Existentialism, 2nd Edition.
- ^ Malik, Habib C. (1997) Receiving Søren Kierkegaard.
- ^ Monk, Ray. (1990) Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius.
- ^ Austin, John Langshaw. (1970) Philosophical Papers, 2nd Edition.
- ^ a b Rorty, Richard. (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.
- ^ Wiener, Philip. (1949) Evolution and the Founders of Pragmatism.
- ^ a b Russian Philosophy on IEP
- ^ Weston, Michael. (1994) Kierkegaard and Modern Continental Philosophy.
- ^ The Strange Death of Ordinary Language Philosophy
- ^ Brennan, Andrew and Yeuk-Sze Lo (2002). "Environmental Ethics" §2, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Gruen, Lori (2003). "The Moral Status of Animals," in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ See Hursthouse, Rosalind (2003). "Virtue Ethics" §3, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Donchin, Anne (2004). "Feminist Bioethics" in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Everett, Anthony and Thomas Hofweber (eds.) (2000), Empty Names, Fiction and the Puzzles of Non-Existence.
- ^ Van Inwagen, Peter, and Dean Zimmerman (eds.) (1998), Metaphysics: The Big Questions.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Postrel and Feser, February 2000, Reality Principles: An Interview with John R. Searle at http://www.reason.com/news/show/27599.html
- ^ Dennett, Daniel C. (2001) "Are We Explaining Consciousness Yet?" Cognition 79 (1-2):221-37.
- ^ For summaries and some criticism of the different higher-order theories, see Van Gulick, Robert (2006) "Mirror Mirror—Is That All?" In Kriegel & Williford (eds.), Self-Representational Approaches to Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. The final draft is also available here. For Van Gulick's own view, see Van Gulick, Robert. "Higher-Order Global States HOGS: An Alternative Higher-Order Model of Consciousness." In Gennaro, R.J., (ed.) Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness: An Anthology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Topics
Philosophy of mind
- Stich, Stephen P. The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind. ISBN 0631217754
- Smith, David Woodruff and Amie L. Thomasson. Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind. ISBN 0199272441
Philosophy of religion
- Creegan, Charles L. Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard. ISBN 0415000661
- Nielsen, Kai and D.Z. Phillips. Wittgensteinian Fideism? ISBN 0334040051
- Taliaferro, Charles and Philip L. Quinn. A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion. ISBN 0631213287
- Wainwright, William J. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion. ISBN 0195138090
- Zagzebski, Linda. Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction. ISBN 1405118725
Philosophy of science
- Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method. ISBN 0226467759
- Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. ISBN 0226458083
Political philosophy
- Kymlicka, Will. Contemporary Political Philosophy. ISBN 0198782748
[edit] Schools
Deconstruction
- Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. ISBN 0801858305
Postanalytic philosophy
- Rorty, Richard. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. ISBN 0691020167
