Philosophy is often frowned upon by scientists. They see themselves as engaged in unravelling the mysteries of nature by doing laborious practical work while philosophers do their work from the comfort of an armchair. The type of philosophers that those in English-speaking countries criticise are referred to as analytic philosophers. They are the type of philosopher with which they are most familiar.
Analytic philosophy is a philosophical tradition that emphasises clarity of language, logical rigour, and precise analysis of concepts. It emerged in the early 20th century mainly in the English-speaking world. Analytic philosophers typically focus on breaking down philosophical problems into manageable components. Problems are solved using techniques such as formal logic, linguistic analysis and the scrutiny of ordinary language.
Thus, analytic philosophy shares much in common with science. However, it is not the only form of philosophy practised. Continental philosophy is a branch of philosophy that originated in continental Europe, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. Characteristically, it emphasises human experience, culture, and society. It explores concepts like existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and structuralism. It is more personalised than analytic philosophy or science.
A criticism of those sciences applied to human beings is their lack of personalisation. The object studied is the human body devoid of a personality - or a soul. Science borrows more from analytic philosophy than it does from continental philosophy. In its inclusion of human experience, continental philosophy may have something to offer a science of the whole human being - the whole person.
