Comparison Essay

Schools of Thought Comparison By: Amanda Szyszkowski There are three main types of schools of thought that are noted in the field of philosophy. The three schools are continental, pragmatic, and analytic philosophies. We are going to take a look at all three of theses and compare them, and see which one most appeals to me and why. The first school is continental philosophy. Continental philosophy is a general term that is associated with the philosophical views that originated on the continental England in the 20th century (dictionary. om staff, 2012). It contains many theories such as critical theory, deconstruction, existentialism, hermeneutics, phenomenology, and structuralism (dictionary. com staff, 2012). The two schools of thought linked to continental that are the most important are existentailism and phenomenology (Moore & Bruder, 2011). The most influencial philosophers related to continental philosophy are Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre (Moore & Bruder, 2011).

Some themes of existentailism are traditional and academic philosophies are sterile from the concerns of real life, the world is irrational, and the world is absurd in the sense that there are not explanations that can be given for the way that it is. The above are not all the themes for this school of thought but there are the most compelling (Moore & Bruder, 2011). The second type philosophy is known is pragmatic. Pragmatic philosophy is a type of philosophy that rejects the idea that there is a such a thing as absolute truth (Moore & Bruder, 2011).

Instead in this philosophy they think the truth is realtive to time, place, purpose, and is ever changing in the light of new data (Moore & Bruder, 2011). Pragmatism roots primarily are located in the United States. It is also know as American pragmatism. The main school of thought for pragmatism is that there is no absolute or fixed truth. The founding fathers of this type of philosophy are C. S. Pierce and William James. James however would not take the credit for the invention of pragmatism that starting in philosophy clubs that the two men set up. He gives all the credit to Pierce.

The final type of philosophy that I am going to cover is analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophy is the learning through experience. The mind of a person catorgorizes experiences. The main school of though for analytic philosophy is that the only thing that we know for certain is that we learn through experience (Moore & Bruder, 2011). Analytic philosophy has ties to both England and America, but it is mostly is used in America. The main philosopher for this type of philosophy is Russell. Russell and his wife set up many schools in England and America that proposed a new way of learning philosophy (Moore & Bruder, 2011).

All three types of philosophy have strong and valid points and strong ideals. Which one do you think is the strongest one? References 1. Dictionary. com Staff. (2012) “Continental Philosophy” retrieved from http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/continental-philosophy on September 2, 2012. 2. Moore, B. N. , & Bruder, K. (2011) Philosophy: The Power Of Ideas. (8th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 3. Farlex. (2012) “Pragmaticism” retrieved from http://www. thefreedictionary. com/pragmatism on September 2, 2012. 4.