Twentieth Century Philosophy

Catalog description

The 20th century can be characterized as a crisis of foundations, doubt about the ultimate grounding or demonstrability of our beliefs concerning the world and ourselves. So-called continental philosophy sought a ground of knowledge in phenomenology, the view that human subjective experience ("phenomena") reveals essences, how things actually are. By mid-century, deconstructionist critique shattered confidence about the underlying distinctions assumed here. So-called analytic philosophy began the century with a commitment to eliminating metaphysical speculation in favor of narrowly empirical truths, on the model of scientific investigation; but the eventual unconvincingness of this view led to theories of knowledge and metaphysics that allowed for the absence of foundations. Rooted in this and earlier rejections of foundations, so-called pragmatism began as way to assess competing ideas by the difference they make in human action. A crisis in political foundations generated the social and philosophical movements of Marxism, critical race theory, and feminism. The ramifications of these crises continue to be acutely felt in contemporary philosophy, making the 20th century a period of particularly diverse and relevant resources. This course satisfies BA and GH requirements.