20th-century philosophy
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20th-century philosophy covers thinkers who wrote and produced ideas in philosophy during the twentieth century. New ways of thinking about problems were put forward following the success of science and advances in mathematics and other areas of study. Philosophy after 1900 became more professionalized. Philosophers gradually split between two main kinds of philosophy:
- Analytic philosophy, which became popular in English-speaking countries. This kind of philosophy concentrates on clarifying thoughts with logic. Analytic philosophers try to work along with natural sciences (such as mathematics), since they say natural sciences are the most accurate way of understanding the world.
- Continental philosophy, which was developed by philosophers on mainland Europe. This kind includes movements such as German idealism and French feminism. Continental philosophers say that in order to deal with a problem, they have to understand other things about the problem, such as the historical period and local culture the problem occurred in.
Schools and approaches
Notable twentieth-century thinkers
- Bertrand Russell
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Martin Heidegger
- Hans-Georg Gadamer
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Louis Althusser
- Michel Foucault
- Karl Popper
- John Rawls
- Robert Nozick
- David Chalmers
- Peter Singer
- Alvin Plantinga
- Richard Dawkins
- Ayn Rand
20th-century Philosophy Media
Existentialism is an important school in the continental philosophical tradition. Four key existentialists pictured from top-left clockwise: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Dostoevsky.
