Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Analytical philosophy: we don't care about morals, what it means to be human, and meaning. Let's constrain philosophy to an axiomatic system based on formal logic and math. We shall think and express only whatever meagre results our systems allow.

Continental philosophy: we care about unexpressed human experience, morality, insight and meaning (or its lack thereof). We can be as poetic as we think suits the subject matter in inquiring for those things.




I wouldn't agree with this characterization. There are no subjects that are off-limits to Continentals or Analytics.

As they've come to dominate university philosophy departments, the Analytics especially have started to branch out in to all sorts of fields they refused to touch in the past -- even going so far as to start reading and discussing Continental philosophers themselves (while mostly missing the point, in my opinion).

Their difference today is mostly one of approach or writing style, how they understand philosophers of the past, and which of them they consider important. Analytics also seem to be generally more scientistic[1] than Continentals.

It's hard to summarize the difference any better in words that are comprehensible to people who haven't studied philosophy. You really should just read some representative philosophers from each tradition yourself. It's glaringly obvious if you do.

[1] - Note: That's "scientistic" -- not to be confused with "scientific". For a good introduction to the difference avoid Wikipedia (which is pretty awful at philosophy), or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (which is much better, but is very heavily slanted towards the Analytic perspective) and see: Tom Sorell's "Scientism": https://www.amazon.com/Scientism-Philosophy-Infatuation-Scie...


The term "scientism" is pretty well self-refuting, given how often it's misused. It's special pleading raised to a new level of condescension.


> Analytical philosophy: we don't care about morals, what it means to be human, and meaning.

This is a strange claim, given that Rawls, Anscombe, Nozick, and Williams (all on the list) are analyticists explicitly concerned with morality. Anscombe and Rawls were more or less single-handedly responsible for reviving virtue and deontological ethics, respectively.

You might be thinking of the positivists, who were an early (and important) influence on the analytic tradition.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: