Continental Philosophy Essay

Continental Philosophy Essay   Cassandra Lucchese   Axia College of the University of Phoenix   The development of existentialism and phenomenology in Continental philosophy was an indirect response to Hegel’s philosophy of idealism. This response took different forms in English speaking countries and European countries. The response to Hegelian idealism on the European continent is known as Continental philosophy (Moore, 2005). Within this philosophy there are different philosophical thoughts know as existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and critical theory. The focus of this essay is going to be on the historical development of existentialism, phenomenology and their key contributors and principle issues.   To point out existentialism and phenomenology both have their roots in the nineteenth century and you can see that their main beliefs can be followed back to the pre-Socrates. Starting with existentialism some of the main themes are as follows. Traditional and academic philosophy is sterile and remote from the concerns of real life, philosophy must focus on the individual in his or her confrontation with the world, the world is irrational, the world is absurd, in the sense that no explanation can be given for why it is the way it is (Moore, 2005). A couple more themes are senselessness, emptiness, triviality, and the inability to communicate pervade human existence, and the individual confronts, as the most important fact of human existence, and the individual confronts, as the most important fact of human existence, the necessity to choose how he or she is to live within this absurd and irrational world (Moore, 2005). Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche were three philosophers of the nineteenth century who opposed Hegel’s idealism, all three believing that this optimistic philosophy did not address the true pickle of humanity and without dealing with the true nature of humanity and without dealing with the true...