There are two different types of philosophy---analytic philosophy and speculative philosophy. What do each of these mean and what are the differences?

Analytic Philosophy or Conceptual Analysis

The first branch of philosophy categorizes the analytic study of concepts as the focus of philosophy; the purpose of philosophy is to clarify the language of ideas by defining the philosophic and scientific terms. The philosopher works like a scientist, but instead of systematically explaining the world through observations and experimentation, he examines other scientists, moralists, and theologians to discover the basic presuppositions and concepts that they use.

Despite its popularity, not all philosophers prefer analytic philosophy because they believe it focuses too much on finding meaning instead of discovering truth. As Geisler and Feinberg put it, “we can spend so much time defining the terms in a statement that we lose sight of the truth of the statement.”

Speculative Philosophy

Speculative philosophy isn’t very favorable, especially in Anglo-American philosophy, and any argument for its label is immediately disdained. The goal of speculative philosophy is to explain reality and humanity’s purpose in it, some forms even go so far as declaring how both the world and men should act. Eventually, everything gets condensed into a unified view of reality and a single system of religious, moral, and aesthetic values.


Source: Norman L Geisler and Paul D Feinberg - Introduction to Philosophy

Last updated on Nov 08, 2024 18:24 -0500