Philosophical Currents (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what philosophical currents are, which were the main ones throughout history and their characteristics along with the notable authors of each one.

What is a philosophical current?

A philosophical current is a concept that is used in the history of philosophy to refer to a group of philosophers who share a series of common traits.

In general, philosophical currents emerge at certain times and places in history. For example: The Platonic current of thought emerged in Greece from the 5th century BC. C., with Plato and his subsequent founding of the Academy, although this does not imply that there were only Platonists in his time. A philosophical current can emerge at a certain moment and re-emerge long after..

The appearance of the different currents does not necessarily mean the historical evolution of philosophical thought. The emergence of a philosophical current does not imply improvement over the immediately preceding current. In many cases, different currents emerge in direct opposition to each other, in a critical manner, or even proposing completely different systems.

In the history of philosophy there are many currents that managed to maintain themselves for long periods of time. Some of them are Platonism, skepticism, Augustinian thought and Thomism, rationalism, empiricism, idealism, existentialism, the currents that ascribe to Kantian thought and the phenomenology of the 20th and 21st centuries.

See also: Etymology of the term “Philosophy”

Classification of philosophical currents

There are different criteria that are used when considering a philosophical current.. In general, the different currents respond to geographical, historical, linguistic or theoretical criteria. Of these forms of classification, the theoretical is the one that resulted in currents that lasted the longest in history.

Many times a combination of different criteria occurs simultaneously. Such is the case of Platonism, which emerged in a common geographical space (Greece) at a specific historical moment (V BC), under the same language (ancient Greek) and according to the same theoretical framework (Platonism).

Geographic criterion. It responds to the place where a philosophical current originates. It can refer to a country, a region or even a city. Some currents that identify with this criterion are the Miletus school, from Antiquity, or the division between continental and analytical philosophy, from contemporary philosophy.
Historical criterion. It responds to the chronological proximity in which a philosophical current originates. Reference can be made to the decade in which the authors who make up the current are born or even to the century in which they live and write. Some currents that identify with this criterion are the pre-Socratics, the sophists or the cynics.
Language criterion. It responds to the common language in which a philosophical current originates. This criterion usually groups several currents into a larger group, as is the case of Greek thought or German idealism.
Theoretical or ideological criterion. It responds to a series of common ideas and concepts that function as starting points for thinkers who participate (or are assigned by historians of philosophy) to a current. This is the most common criterion and is usually used in conjunction with one or more of the other criteria. Some currents that identify with this criterion are Platonism, Thomism, phenomenology, neo-Kantians or post-structuralism.

Currents of ancient philosophy

The main currents of ancient philosophy were:

Presocratics. They were, as their name indicates, the philosophers who lived in the era before Socrates (470-399 BC). In addition to sharing this trait in common, all of them sought an ultimate principle that ordered nature, as was the case of Thales (624-546 BC), Parmenides (530-5th century BC) and Heraclitus (540 -480 BC).
- Miletus School. It was a subgroup of thinkers that originated in the Miletus area. Its main representatives are Thales, Anaximander (610-546 BC) and Anaximenes (615-550 BC).
- Eleatic school. It was a subgroup of thinkers that originated in the Elea area. Its main representatives are Parmenides and Zeno of Elea (490-430 BC).
Pythagoreans. It was a philosophical and religious movement that occurred in the middle of the 6th century BC. C. around the thought of Pythagoras of Samos (570-490 BC). The Pythagoreans developed a system based on numbers as the beginning of all things. Its main representatives are Pythagoras and some of his disciples, such as Epicharmus of Megara (540-40 BC) and Alcmeon of Croton (6th century BC).
sophists. They were the teachers of rhetoric who lived in Athens during the 5th century BC. C. They developed different theories about truth and language and their work is collected in the testimonies of Plato and Aristotle. Its main representatives are Protagoras (485-411 BC) and Gorgias (483-375 BC).
Socratics. They were the direct disciples of Socrates who followed his teachings and founded the minor Socratic schools. Being a heterogeneous group, the Megarics, the Cynics and the Cyrenaics are placed among them, as well as Plato, although his is a particular case.
Platonists. They were Plato's direct and indirect disciples, most of them trained in the Platonic Academy. The founder of the movement was Plato himself, whose doctrines appear in several of his dialogues. Its main representatives are Plato, Xenocrates (396-314 BC) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (390-337 BC).
peripatetic school. It was the philosophical circle that followed the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC). The school took its name from being next to the garden in which Aristotle was said to walk (in Greek, peripatetic means “to go around”). Its main representatives are Eudemus of Rhodes (370-300 BC) and Andronicus of Rhodes (1st century BC).
Stoicism. It was a philosophical school founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BC. C. The Stoics developed the idea of eudaimonia“happiness”. Its main representatives are Zeno, Seneca (4 BC – 65) and Epictetus (55-135).
Cynics. It was a school founded by Antisthenes in the 4th century BC. C. He took his name from his style of living, which was frugal and resembled that of a dog (in Greek, cynical comes from kyon“dog”). Its main representatives are Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 BC), Hipparquia (346-300 BC) and Menippus of Gadara (300-260 BC).
Cyrenaeans. They were philosophers who followed the teachings of Aristippus (435-350 BC), a disciple of Socrates. This school followed pleasurable sensations as the principle of knowledge. Its main representatives are Aristippus and Theodore the Atheist (340-250 BC).
Neoplatonists. They were a group of thinkers who in the first centuries of Christianity took up the teachings of Plato. Many of them combined Platonic philosophy with some ideas from Christianity in an attempt to explain the passage from the single principle of the universe to the multiplicity of things. Some of its representatives are Plotinus (205-270), Proclus (412-485) and Porphyry (232-304).

Ancient philosophy

Currents of medieval philosophy

The main currents of medieval philosophy were:

Augustinism. It was a system of philosophical and theological thought that was based on the thought, writings and ideas of Saint Augustine (354-430). He focused on points related to the predestination of the soul and divine grace. In addition to the Order of Saint Augustine (created around his figure and teachings), many thinkers after the theologian have an intellectual debt to him, such as Petrarch (1304-1374), René Descartes (1596-1650), Hannah Arendt (1906- 1975) and Jacques Derrida (1930-2004).
Scholasticism. It was a medieval philosophical and theological current that followed the patristics. He tried to coordinate faith and reason, combining Greco-Latin philosophy with Christianity. Some of its most important representatives are Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), Pedro Abelard (1079-1142), Juan Duns Scotus (1266-1308) and Francisco Suárez (1548-1617). The case of Saint Thomas is placed as a separate current.
Thomism. It was a philosophical current that arose around the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274). Saint Thomas was a medieval scholastic who lived in the 13th century and represents one of the most successful attempts to systematize theology together with Aristotelian thought. In addition to Saint Thomas, its main representatives are Francisco Suárez, Juan de Saint Thomas (1589-1644) and, in the 20th century, Étienne Gilson (1884-1978).
Nominalism. It was a current based on the philosophical doctrine that maintains that all abstract universal objects do not exist beyond being mere names or labels. Some of its greatest representatives are William of Ockham (1285-1347), George Berkeley (1685-1753) and Peter Abelard.

Medieval philosophy

Currents of modern philosophy

The main currents of modern philosophy were:

Empiricism. It was a philosophical movement that arose in the United Kingdom during the 17th century. For empiricists, the beginning of knowledge was sensible experience. In this they opposed the rationalists, who thought that knowledge began in reason. Some of its representatives are John Locke (1632-1704) and David Hume (1711-1776).
Rationalism. It was a philosophical current that arose in continental Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. For rationalists, the beginning of knowledge was reason. In this they opposed the empiricists, who postulated sensible experience as the principle of knowledge. Some of its representatives are René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677).
Idealism. It was a philosophical current that affirmed the primacy of the immaterial reality of ideas over material reality. In direct opposition to materialism, for idealists there are no objects without someone mentally perceiving them. Some of its representatives, although with differences, are George Berkeley, Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
Contractualism. It was a modern philosophical current of political philosophy and law. It focused on explaining the origin of society and the State based on an original and sealing social contract. Its main representatives are Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

Modern philosophy

Currents of contemporary philosophy

The main currents of contemporary philosophy are:

contemporary idealism. It is the continuation and, in some cases, reformulation of modern idealism. Its representatives are the theorists and scholars of Kant, neo-Kantism and Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831).
Neo-Kantianism. In addition to being located in idealism, it is a contemporary philosophical current that focuses on the study of Kant's ideas, in opposition to the absolute idealism of Hegel. It was divided into the Marburg School, with Paul Natorp (1854-1924) and Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945), and the Baden School, with Heinrich Rickert (1863-1936).
Phenomenology. It is a philosophical movement founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). It began in Germany and, mid-century, it was introduced in France by Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). With great contemporary development, it continues to expand to this day.
Positivism. It is a philosophical current based on the philosophy of Auguste Comte (1798-1857). It is considered a critical and constructive theory, in the sense of scientific positivism.
Existentialism. It is a philosophical current that emerged in the interwar period of the 20th century. With some antecedents in the 19th century, Jean-Paul Sartre is considered to be its founder and maximum representative.
Vitalism. It is a philosophical current that originated from the thought of Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941). He proposes that physics and metaphysics are opposite terrains that cannot absorb each other.
Marxism. It is a contemporary philosophical current that began with the thought of Karl Marx (1818-1883). It is also a social, economic, political and sociological theory, whose proposed system has generated socioeconomic changes in many countries globally.
Structuralism. It is a philosophical current that began at the beginning of the 20th century from the General linguistics course by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Its main idea is that of “structure”, taken by different branches of thought to analyze its objects of study. Some of its representatives are Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009) and Louis Althusser (1918-1990).
Poststructuralism. It is the term used to refer to the current of heterogeneous thinkers who are located in the stage that followed structuralism. These thinkers agree on a questioning of the idea of structure and a critical return to the notion of the subject. Some of its representatives are Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) and Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995).
Humanism. It is a philosophical current that began in modernity that gained momentum after the end of the First World War. It focuses on the idea of the human being as the center of the universe, and advocates the restructuring and recovery of moral values.
Anarchism. It is a philosophical current that calls for the abolition of the State understood as the monopoly of political and social force. Its main representatives were Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) and Mijail Bakunin (1814-1876).
Postmodernism. It is the term used to refer to the current of thinkers who are located after modernism and is characterized by a strong criticism of modern tradition and rationality. Some of its representatives are Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998), Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and Jacques Derrida.
Feminist theories. They are a series of theoretical and practical developments still in development whose origin can be traced to the publication of The second sexby Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986). Currently, we talk about feminist theories and not feminism due to the diversity of approaches and practices that the group raises.
Deconstruction. Although it is not a philosophical current, it is a way of doing philosophy that became popular during the 20th century thanks to Jacques Derrida, its initiator and main executor.

References

Marías, J., Zubiri, X., & and Gasset, JO (1941). History of philosophy (No. B94. M37 1974.). Madrid: Western Magazine.
Reale, G., & Antiseri, D. (2007). History of philosophy. San Pablo Editorial.
Hegel, GWF, & Terrón, E. (1971). Introduction to the history of philosophy. Aguilar.