Contemporary Philosophy

Contemporary philosophy is the recent era of philosophy, generally including the ideas of great philosophers from the 19th to 21st century. It is also known as the most extreme reform of moral, human rights, and political institutions. Contemporary philosophy is, therefore, a period in which a lot of contemporary concerns were strongly theorized, like the concept of content, modality, mental health and physical nature, free will, space and time, ethical naturalism against non-naturalism, moral psychology, linguistic limits, and autonomy in moral and political philosophy. This period is a time of political and moral autonomy.

Modern philosophy first expects us to address the epistemological difficulties before moving on to other fields of philosophical thinking. It places critical thinking and problem-solving at the center of the serious challenges of society.

Existentialism

Existentialism is widely seen as the cultural and philosophical movement that argues that an individual’s experiences are the beginning point of philosophical thought. On that basis, the existentialists argue that moral thinking and scientific thinking combined are not enough to comprehend human life and that other categories thus need to explain human existence, controlled by the standard of authenticity.

Existentialism is a type of philosophical investigation that focuses on the experience of thinking, feeling, and acting to investigate the dilemma of human life. Existentialist philosophers regularly investigate questions about the meaning, purpose, and value of human existence. Despite substantial philosophical differences, existentialism is linked with numerous 19th and 20th-century European thinkers who shared an emphasis on human life.

Progressivism

Progressivism is based on the notion of progress. Progress is crucial for the betterment of human conditions in the fields of science, technology, economic development, and social groups. They believe that violent struggle between the perceived privileged and unprivileged is primarily controlled by capitalism, therefore, progressives argue that these issues must be addressed.

In terms of education, progressivists believe that education has to be concentrated on the pupil instead of the instructor or the topic. This educational concept emphasizes that pupils should experiment with active ideas. Passive learning is discouraged in this notion. The learner is an issue solver who produces significance in the physical and cultural context via his or her own experience. Learning is based on the student’s curiosity.

Behaviourism

Behaviorism in contemporary philosophy is a style of thinking about empirical restrictions on the attribution of psychological states. Behaviorism is an ideology of doing psychological or behavioral science. According to this notion, behavior can be explained without final reference to psychological events or internal processes. The roots of behavior are external, rather than internal, i.e the surroundings play an important role in influencing behavior.

A behaviorist is someone who requires behavioral evidence to support any claims of psychology. There is no discernible difference between two states of mind for such a person unless there is a discernible variation in the behavior connected with each condition.

There are three types of behaviorism;

• Methodological: In this form, behavior is analyzed without studying mental health/status.

• Psychological: In psychological form, external and physical stimuli explain human behavior.

• Analytical/logical: According to analytical behaviorism, mental states are taken into consideration while studying behavior.

Humanism

Humanism is a contemporary philosophical argument that regards people as the point of origin for significant moral and philosophical concerns. Humanism refers to a worldview that upholds some concept of human freedom and advancement. It considers humanity to be accountable for the promotion, development, and equal dignity of all human beings stresses humanity’s concern concerning society. Humanism underlines the importance of human lives. Unlike various other notions, it does not emphasize religious matters. Instead of focusing on religious traditions, this philosophy focuses on assisting individuals to live better lives, achieve self-improvement, and consider human values.

Humanists believe that only science supplies this universe with accurate and reliable information. Humans live their lives only once. There is no such thing as afterlife and reincarnation. Without religious beliefs, human beings can live meaningful lives.

There are three types of humanism in contemporary philosophy, they are;

• Liberal humanism: Liberal humanists think that in every single person resides the sanctity of humanity. The most essential thing, therefore, is to safeguard the sacredness and freedom of every person. The notion of “human rights” originated from this philosophical idea. Liberal humanists believe in each individual’s sacredness.

• Socialist humanism: The main concept of socialist humanism is to maintain individual equality in the species i.e considering equality of the human species as a whole rather than favoring individual rights. Socialist humanism recognizes that, while promoting individual rights, there is room for discrimination among individuals on a variety of grounds. These people believe that the combined efforts of individuals are what a society meaningful.

• Evolutionary humanism: Evolutionary humanism argues that people must evolve and not regress. Evolutionary humanists focused on natural selection for the evolution of human species. Evolutionary humanism believes that humans will continue to improve and develop in a higher way and will attain a future earthly paradise through reason and science. These are considered to be the keys to human development and survival.

Reconstructionism

Reconstructionism challenges fundamentalism and other inflexible and ideological positions. It examines the established norms to offer the social, political, economic, and other associated concerns a new viewpoint. The philosophy of reconstructionism focuses on addressing social issues and attempts to create a better society and democracy. A reconstructionist usually focuses on social transformation. It urges the schools to incorporate significant social issues and ideas to create a better and democratic society. They believe that schools must be closely integrated with society and educators should participate more in teaching the social cause.

Reconstructionism is all about bringing a constructive change in society. Teachers play an important role in cultivating socially moral issues in students. Social reconstructionists believe that students will find ways to solve these challenges and achieve in creating a more fair society through raising awareness of the variety of social problems. Teachers can aid society by making students aware of social concerns so that they can advocate for change and reform society.