WEEK FIVE: CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 19 TH & 20 TH Century Philosophy & Existentialism

Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy - i Recall from our first class that ….

Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy- ii The five historical periods of philosophy are –Ancient (600 BCE- 450 CE) –Medieval ( ) –Early Modern ( ) –Nineteenth Century –Twentieth Century

Nineteenth Century - i There are at least four distinctive characteristics of nineteenth century philosophy: –The influence of Immanuel Kant –The end of the polymath –The development of a distinctively Anglo- American philosophy (Britain and the U.S.A.) –The development of Continental Philosophy in France and Germany

Nineteenth Century - ii Immanuel Kant ( ) tried to reconcile rationalism and empiricism by arguing that there are two worlds for humans: –The world of things as they exist in themselves (the noumenal world) –The world of things as they appear to us (the phenomenal world)

Nineteenth Century - iii Kant argued that –We can only know the world as we experience it We can never transcend the world as we experience it (the phenomenal realm) We can never know things as they exist in themselves (in the noumenal realm)

Nineteenth Century - iv The century was also marked by –The end of the polymath (the “Renaissance man”) –increased specialization of disciplines –increased interest in quantifying data and evaluation of those data

Nineteenth Century - v This led to a crisis in philosophy: –What is philosophy’s (new) task? –What makes philosophy unique (different)?

Nineteenth Century - vi Philosopher’s responded to the “crisis in philosophy” by –Developing new methods of philosophical analysis –Limiting philosophical investigations to the study of the phenomenal realm The two dominant responses can be categorized by content and method

Nineteenth Century – vii –Continental philosophy in Germany and France Developed in the middle of the nineteenth century Method: Historical analysis of the development of ideas Content: The impact on human life of recognizing the limits of knowledge

Continental Philosophy - i –Continental philosophy holds that the main purpose of philosophy is To analyze consciousness’s experience of itself and of its world, leading to An analysis of social and political institutions in light of their effect on human life and human consciousness –Continental Philosophy is genealogical and historical

Continental Philosophy - ii Among the more famous continental philosophers are –G.W.F. Hegel [ ] –Friedrich Nietzsche [ ] –Edmund Husserl [ ] –Martin Heidegger [ ]

Continental Philosophy -iii –G.W.F. Hegel Developed the first phenomenology - a study of the phenomenal rather than noumenal realm Gave philosophers a new task: the analysis of consciousness as it appears to consciousness His “Master-Slave Dialectic” continues to influence twentieth century philosophy

Continental Philosophy - iv Edmund Husserl Developed the first phenomenological method His method replaced Descartes’s method as the dominant way of doing philosophy in Europe This method sought knowledge of essences as they appeared to consciousness

Continental Philosophy – v For example: Phenomeologists ask –‘What is our experience of time?’ –And no longer ask ‘What is time?

Nineteenth Century Philosophy - viii Anglo-American philosophy in Britain and the U.S.A. Developed at the end of the nineteenth century Method: Scientific and Analytic Content: The logical analysis of ideas and language

Anglo-American Philosophy-i –Anglo-American philosophy holds that the main purpose of philosophy is to clear up ambiguous words and thoughts and thus to solve philosophical puzzles by dissolving them. –Analytic Philosophy is problem-oriented and a- historical

Anglo-American Philosophy - ii –Among the more famous Anglo-American philosophers are Gottlob Frege [ ] Bertrand Russell [ ] Ludwig Wittgenstein [ ] A.J. Ayer [ ]

Anglo-American Philosophy - iii Bertrand Russell –Wrote first book of Analytic Philosophy (Ordinary Language Philosophy) –Because of Russell, “(analytic) philosophical analysis is now characterized by a heightened logical rigor.”

Anglo-American Philosophy - iv Russell argued that –“Any statement as to what it is that our immediate experiences makes us know is very likely to be wrong” –We cannot know objects-in-themselves with certainty, but we can know that they exist as the likely cause of the sense-data in our sensations

Anglo-American Philosohy -iv According to Russell, the value of philosophy lies in –Attempting to answer the ultimate questions –Exploring what makes these questions so puzzling –Recognizing the vagueness, confusions, and contradictions of ordinary ideas –Arousing wonder: it shows the strangeness lying just below surface of the most common things

Anglo-American Philosophy - vi Ludwig Wittgenstein –As a young student he was convinced philosophy had nothing left to say –He returned to philosophy late in life with a renewed sense of purpose –He ultimately argued that Language is the system through which meanings are formed and understood No meaningful thought can exist unless it can be communicated through language to others The correct task of philosophy is identification and analysis of “language games”

Twentieth Century - i Contemporary Philosophers continued these projects Two things make it difficult to identify the most influential trends in philosophy today –Continued specialization and growth of sub-disciplines within philosophy –Our proximity to the twentieth century

Twentieth Century - i Three distinctive characteristics of 20th century philosophy are –Criticism of Metaphysics of the ability to ‘discover reality’ –Analysis of Consciousness analysis of the ways in which meanings are understood and/or created, and communicated –And, …

Twentieth Century - ii Debates about the correct function and scope of philosophy –Should it limit itself to analysis of language and truth-claims? Analytic Philosophy –Should it return to the Socratic aim of doing social critique and seeking to define Justice? Continental Philosophy

Twentieth Century -iii This debate was reflected in the growing tension between analytic philosophy in Britain and the U.S.A., and continental philosophy in Germany and France.

Twentieth Century - iii Currently, philosophers are in high demand in the following fields –Law –Politics –Education –Cognitive Science –Artificial Intelligence

Existentialism - i One very popular field in Contemporary Continental Philosophy is Existentialism In this course we will study Contemporary Philosophy by studying Existentialism