First it is important to point out that philosophy is based on knowing different philosophical schools with authors who have thoughts that in many cases are totally opposite. One of the most exciting historical periods is the history of contemporary philosophy. It is about that philosophy that is framed in the Contemporary Era.
Contemporary philosophy begins with the positive thought of Augusto Comte, then this time is further consolidated, with the appearance of the socialist doctrine of Karl Marx, the appearance of the vitalist philosopher Nietzsche and perhaps philosophy takes a radical turn with the appearance of William James and his conception of philosophy, since all the philosophers had told us about a theoretical and conceptual philosophy, but he makes a great contribution to philosophy, he makes philosophy become both theoretical and practical with the appearance of philosophical pragmatism, and It is also good to emphasize his work for psychological Functionalism, James is a philosopher who always focuses on two points, in the unconscious of the human being and in the practice of theoretical knowledge.
In addition, the main theme of contemporary philosophers is the problem of man, trying to explain his essence and nature, in which they consider man as a being and as an animal, with prominent representatives such as: Max Scheler, Wilhelm Dilthey, José Ortega and Gasset, Jean Paul Sartre, Ernst Casserier, among others.
Contemporary philosophy began with the dissolution of the Hegelian system, and is characterized by its complexity and problematism; by questioning the truth itself, its consistency and existence, the philosophical dimension of reality and philosophy itself; by the development of a diversity of currents and doctrines, many of them in radical opposition.
There are historians of philosophy, such as Enzo Paci, who think that the situation of contemporary philosophy is largely determined by Kant's heritage and by the interpretations of Kantian criticism that nineteenth-century thought has given according to his criterion. From the beginning, the work of deepening criticism denounces, in the philosophers who are inspired by it, both the impossibility of not accepting criticism as it is, and the impossibility of accepting it. Kant had also presented the criticism in terms of propaedeutics, an introduction to philosophy.
From this point of view, after the criticism a new philosophy had to begin; but Kant had also demonstrated the impossibility of a metaphysical philosophy: from this other point of view, philosophy no longer seemed possible because it was reduced to the very activity of criticism, that is, to the analysis and the conditions of the limits of knowing. If criticism is not philosophy, if it is not a philosophical system, the problem consisted in continuing the work of Kant, eventually constructing the philosophical system. The system had to be based on a fundamental principle from which to derive all the others. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, this is the problem that seems to prevail (“Contemporary Philosophy”).
