8 CURRENT philosophical currents
In today's class we are going to study the main current philosophical currents. Those that are located within the call contemporary philosophy and that encompass different thinkers, tendencies and thoughts from the S.XX to the present day. All of them, from their different perspectives, are interested in social issues/welfare and try to give answers to questions about man, the world or life.
Thus, if we travel to the 20th century, we find a large number of currents such as: existentialism, pragmatism, phenomenology, structuralism… And if we stay in the 21st century we find three important currents: Continental Philosophy, Analytical Philosophy and Postmodern Philosophy.
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To understand the current philosophical currents, we are going to know how was the philosophy of the S.XX. It is born as a consequence of a whole series of social, economic, political, scientific and philosophical, and is located between the affirmation-rejection with all philosophical thought developed with anteriority. Therefore, the time has come to talk about the main philosophical currents of the 20th century.
1. Existentialism
He existentialism is a current that arises in the S. XIX with authors like Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, however, it was not until World War II when it developed as one of the most important philosophical currents of the 20th century.
Therefore, this movement arises as a reaction to previous currents such as the rationalism or empiricism. In fact, the historical and social changes that occurred in this century favored a new philosophy, focused on the analysis of being, of human knowledge, granting primacy of the subject over the object and trying to solve problems such as: the absurdity of living, the God-man relationship, life and death or war.
Likewise, from the 20th century, existentialism is divided into three great schools: atheist existentialism ( Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus), agnostic existentialism (Karl Jaspers) and Christian existentialism (Gabriel Marcel or Miguel de Unamuno).
2. Pragmatism
He philosophical pragmatism It is a current that was born in the 19th century and developed throughout the 20th century in the United States at the hands of Charles Sanders Pierce.
This current establishes that the philosophical knowledge it can only be considered true based on the practical and beneficial consequences that we can extract from an action. Hence, from pragmatism it is affirmed that theory is always obtained through practice (= intelligent practice) and that the only valid knowledge is that which has a practical utility. Therefore, according to this current, the individual must be governed by the principle of utility.
3. Phenomenology
The phenomenology (phainómenon = manifestation and logos = knowledge: Knowledge of manifestations) is a philosophical current that was born in the 20th century and that focuses on studying phenomena as they are lived, felt and experienced by the individual. Therefore, the objective of this current will be to analyze consciousness (its structures) and the world that surrounds us.
The father of philosophy is AND. husserl, but also stand out Hume, kant, Hegel, Brentano, Heidegger, Merleau Ponty, Sartre either Marion
4. Feminism
This current was born in the middle of the 20th century (second feminist wave) with the aim of denouncing and ending with inequalities and the abuse of power, inserted in a capitalist and patriarchal society.
Under these premises, feminism will analyze the reason for a society dominated by men based on the concept gender. Through which, culturally, differences and labels have been established for men and women: Domestic sphere/woman and public sphere/men.
Its main representatives are Helen Taylor, Harriet Tylor Mill, Simone de Beauvoir, Angela Davis or Shulamith Firestone.
5. Structuralism and Poststructuralism
Structuralism began to define and spread throughout Europe and the United States, during the 1960s and part of the 1970s with philosophers such as J. Lacan, R. Jakobson, M. Foucault and Cluade Levi-Strauss.
This current establishes that the structure is the center of everything, the one that shapes our culture and ourselves. That is to say, that human reality is the result of a whole series of systematic relationships based on the structures and that it is the result of the interaction of these structures and not by chance. Therefore, these structures organize and shape our sociocultural system and, therefore, to know it we must decode these structures, as if it were a music score.
Over time, from structuralism another current known as structuralism will be born. poststructuralism. which, is going to question the objectivity the neutrality and logic that had been inserted into the study of the social sciences with structuralism. Thus, for poststructuralists structures are not something objective and may be biased by one's own interpretations, history or culture, therefore, there is subjectivity in its meaning.
The analytical philosophy It is another of the current philosophical currents. It began to be developed in the 20th century, in the Anglo-Saxon area and from the works of B.Russell, G.Edward Moore or L. Wittgenstein. This current is directly linked to science and mathematical logic, its main objective being logical analysis of language with the aim of understanding and unraveling the philosophical and scientific concepts inserted in our language, since this one representation of our world/reality. Thus, we find the very conceptualization of language, we will be able to understand a large part of our reality.
Likewise, analytical philosophy is contrary and skeptical with the “traditional philosophy/metaphysics”. From this current it is affirmed that the philosophy that is capable of giving us information about reality or “solving” the great philosophical dilemmas, It is not correct, since we must keep in mind that these philosophical problems are created, false and the result of linguistic confusion. Therefore, traditional philosophy is invalid.
This current was born in the middle of the 20th century and is characterized by the fact that it accommodates those thinkers who are not inserted into analytical philosophy. In addition, it is characterized because this current arises from the union of various doctrines philosophical, such as: existentialism, Marxism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism or idealism.
Likewise, from this current it is established that science (scientific methods) is not the only discipline that allows us to understand the world that surrounds us. In addition, he considers that reality is the product of historical evolution and context (culture, location, language...) in which the individual develops, not from the interaction of the structures.
Postmodern philosophy was born in the 1960s. in France and spread to the rest of Europe in the 1970s as a result of a whole series of publications by the philosopher Jean-Francois Lyortad (creator of the concept of postmodernity). Likewise, among its representatives stand out philosophers such as M.Foucault and R. rortty
From this current he breaks with the philosophical movements developed during the Enlightenment (Modern Age), with the primacy of subject/reason and the idea that the structure is the center of everything is discarded. Thus, what is intended is to give a new philosophical approach focused in the analysis of the power relations and organization political/economic.
Similarly, postmodern philosophy is characterized by does not believe in absolute truths (each individual has the truth about him), for the defense of diversity and free thought / expressing oneself as each one deems appropriate.
