Continental Philosophy

Continental Philosophy, usually contrasted with Analytic Philosophy, refers to the set of philosophies and beliefs in the Continental European region - primarily Germany, France, etc. As opposed to analytic questions regarding logic or mathematics, this tradition generally focuses on questions relating to human experience, consciousness, being, politics, etc. A question that could be asked within this tradition is, “How does societal expression today demonstrate a class struggle?” Some of the ideas represented within this tradition are: phenomenology, structuralism, existentialism, psychoanalytic theories, and dozens of other ideas that have been characterized with this strand of unique flavor. Continental Philosophy is generally considered to have first arisen with German Idealism (simply: a large part of idealism is that our experience of the world, and what it is, is shaped - if not fully formed - by our ideas of it) and then took a turn after WWII to place more emphasis on human experience and meaning (i.e. Sartre). While the Analytic tradition is dominant in most of Europe and America due to the long-lasting influence of the logical empiricists such as the Vienna Circle, the ideas of Continental philosophy are at the forefront in philosophical discussions relating to political theory (especially as it relates to liberation, feminism, etc.), sociology, and still experience. Continental philosophers would be who you would ask for when searching for the "meaning of life" or the "value of cinema" - as opposed to as if you were interested in analytic questions regarding semantics and the like.