Continental philosophy
Continental philosophy is typically a term used as an umbrella term for philosophies prominent in continental Europe.[1] Michael E. Rosen has ventured to identify common themes that typically characterize continental philosophy.[2] These themes proposed by Rosen derive from a broadly Kantian thesis that knowledge, experience, and reality are bound and shaped by conditions best understood through philosophical reflection rather than exclusively empirical inquiry.[3]
"Continental Philosophy" redirects here. For the 2005 book by William R. Schroeder, see Continental Philosophy: A Critical Approach.
Continental philosophy includes German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism (and its antecedents, such as the thought of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche), hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, French feminism, psychoanalytic theory, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as well as branches of Freudian, Hegelian and Western Marxist views.[4] Continental philosophy is often contrasted with analytic philosophy.[5]
There is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Prior to the twentieth century, the term "continental" was used broadly to refer to philosophy from continental Europe.[6][7] A different use of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and traditions outside the analytic movement.[8] The term continental philosophy may mark merely a family resemblance across disparate philosophical views; Hans-Johann Glock has made a similar argument for analytic philosophy.[9] Simon Glendinning has suggested that the term “continental philosophy” was originally more pejorative than descriptive, functioning as a label for types of western philosophy rejected or disliked by analytic philosophers.[10]
Continental philosophy[edit]
Continental philosophy is often contrasted with analytic philosophy.[5] There is widespread influence and debate between the analytic and continental traditions; some philosophers see the differences between the two traditions as being based on institutions, relationships, and ideology rather than anything of significant philosophical substance.[26][9] The distinction has also been drawn as analytic is academic or technical philosophy, while continental is literary philosophy.