Continental philosophy

Continental philosophy is an umbrella term for philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantian tradition.^[1].^[2]

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 some Freudian, Hegelian, and Western Marxist views.^[3] Continental philosophy is often contrasted with analytic philosophy.^[4]

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.^[5]^[6] 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.^[7] The term continental philosophy may mark merely a family resemblance across disparate philosophical views; a similar argument has been made for analytic philosophy.^[8]

^ Critchley 2001, p. 32.
^ Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or self: Solomon 1988, p. 6, "It is with Kant that philosophical claims about the self attain new and remarkable proportions. The self becomes not just the focus of attention but the entire subject-matter of philosophy. The self is not just another entity in the world, but in an important sense it creates the world, and the reflecting self does not just know itself, but in knowing itself knows all selves, and the structure of any and every possible self."
^ The above list includes only those movements common to both lists compiled by Critchley 2001, p. 13 and Glendinning 2006, pp. 58–65
^ H.-J. Glock, What Is Analytic Philosophy? (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 86
^ Leiter 2007, p. 2: "As a first approximation, we might say that philosophy in Continental Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is best understood as a connected weave of traditions, some of which overlap, but no one of which dominates all the others."
^ Critchley, Simon (1998). "Introduction: what is continental philosophy?". In Critchley, Simon; Schroder, William (eds.). A Companion to Continental Philosophy. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 4.
^ Critchley 2001, p. 32: "As such, Continental philosophy is an invention, or, more accurately, a projection of the Anglo-American academy onto a Continental Europe.."
^ Glock, H.J. (2008). What is Analytic Philosophy?. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87267-6. Retrieved 2023-08-28.

[FOOTNOTECritchley200132-1] Critchley 2001, p. 32.

[:2-2] Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or self: Solomon 1988, p. 6, "It is with Kant that philosophical claims about the self attain new and remarkable proportions. The self becomes not just the focus of attention but the entire subject-matter of philosophy. The self is not just another entity in the world, but in an important sense it creates the world, and the reflecting self does not just know itself, but in knowing itself knows all selves, and the structure of any and every possible self."

[3] The above list includes only those movements common to both lists compiled by Critchley 2001, p. 13 and Glendinning 2006, pp. 58–65

[:4-4] H.-J. Glock, What Is Analytic Philosophy? (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 86

[5] Leiter 2007, p. 2: "As a first approximation, we might say that philosophy in Continental Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is best understood as a connected weave of traditions, some of which overlap, but no one of which dominates all the others."

[6] Critchley, Simon (1998). "Introduction: what is continental philosophy?". In Critchley, Simon; Schroder, William (eds.). A Companion to Continental Philosophy. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 4.

[7] Critchley 2001, p. 32: "As such, Continental philosophy is an invention, or, more accurately, a projection of the Anglo-American academy onto a Continental Europe.."

[Glock_2008_p.-8] Glock, H.J. (2008). What is Analytic Philosophy?. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87267-6. Retrieved 2023-08-28.

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