5. Philosophy in wartime
2020 ◽
pp. 58-77
Keyword(s):
In the early twentieth century, German philosophers like Husserl founded theories of phenomenology. ‘Philosophy in wartime: phenomenology and existentialism’ looks at initial adopters in France, some of whom were then quickly gripped by existentialism and structuralism through translations of Heidegger. The leading lights of mid-twentieth-century philosophy—Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty—explored our place in the world. To what extent are humans the product of traditions and socio-cultural practices? In the 1960s, philosophy moved towards approaches to political, social, and scientific problems that challenged the popular humanism of Sartre’s doctrines.