Contemporary Philosophy
20th-21st century movements that cross the analytic-continental divide — Pragmatism, Feminism, Critical Theory, and applied ethics for a technological age.
Sub-topics
America's original philosophy (1870s onward). Truth is what works — ideas are tools for navigating experience. Peirce, James, Dewey. Anti-foundationalist, pluralist, meliorist. Later revived by Rorty, Putnam, and Brandom.
Philosophy through the lens of gender. Beauvoir's 'One is not born, but becomes a woman.' Standpoint theory, ethics of care, intersectionality. Challenges the implicit male bias in the Western canon.
The Frankfurt School: Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas (1930s onward). Critique of instrumental reason, culture industry, and late capitalism. Neo-Marxist diagnosis of modernity's pathologies. Habermas's communicative rationality.
Using evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to do good (2010s). Peter Singer, Toby Ord, William MacAskill. Utilitarian roots applied to global poverty, animal welfare, existential risk, and AI safety.
Can machines think? Turing Test, Chinese Room argument, symbol grounding problem, AI alignment. From Turing (1950) to the alignment crisis of the 2020s. The most consequential applied philosophy of our time.
Does nature have intrinsic value? Deep ecology (Naess), land ethic (Leopold), animal liberation (Singer). Anthropocene philosophy — responsibility for climate change, biodiversity loss, and future generations.