Philosophy
Historical Overview and Recent DevelopmentsConclusion
What is happening in philosophy at the start of the twenty-first century? Philosophy is as vibrant as ever, an opinion that is shared by the various Balkanized citizens of the philosophical profession, although from dramatically different perspectives on what that vibrancy consists of. Analytic philosophers will puff with pride about the technical abilities that are so much in evidence among the newly minted philosophers among them. Poststructuralist philosophers will point with pride to the number of art and literature departments, especially, that have been converted to their ways of thinking. Comparative philosophers with an eye on the East (and, to a lesser extent, on the southern hemisphere) will make sure to mention the number of courses and the extensive interest in ideas from beyond the ever more narrow borders of Anglo-American and European philosophy. Philosophers who do "cognitive science" will beam with satisfaction at the progress being made in understanding the human brain and its manifestations. And more practical ("applied") philosophers will tell you about the number of philosophers employed by business schools, law schools, medical schools, and hospitals. But the truth is that philosophy continues as always, stimulating wonder and argument and spawning intelligent if not always loving attention to the world and to the myriad of human activities that, on reflection, become philosophical.
See also Analytical Philosophy; Continental Philosophy; Philosophy and Religion in Western Thought; Philosophy of Religion; Structuralism and Poststructuralism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Copelston, Frederick. The History of Philosophy. 9 vols. Rev. ed. Westminster, Md.: Newman Bookshop, 1946–1975.
Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Great Philosophers of the Western World. 9 vols. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1933. Reprint, 1983.
Kenny, Anthony. A Brief History of Western Philosophy. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1998.
Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. Simon and Schuster, 1945.
——. The Problems of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Skorupski, John. English-Language Philosophy 1750–1945. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Solomon, Robert C. The Joy of Philosophy: Thinking Thin Versus the Passionate Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
——. Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Solomon, Robert C., and Kathleen M. Higgins. A Short History of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Spiegelberg, Herbert. The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical Introduction. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1960.
Weitz, Morris, ed. Twentieth-Century Philosophy: The Analytic Tradition. New York: Free Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Macmillan, 1933.
Robert C. Solomon
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