[Encyclios]

The current debate

A new way of understanding cognitive activity (including science) in relation to history and with an alternative interpretative dimension to the traditional attempts at normative grounding has transversally affected both philosophical fields, in which it is now customary to distinguish between philosophical, analytic and continental reflection, the first label referring to all Anglo-American philosophical production, traditionally characterized by a linguistic approach to philosophical themes, and the second label referring to European production, largely recognized in hermeneutic philosophy.

The recognition of the impossibility of maintaining the concept of truth as the acquisition of objective knowledge independent of cultural presuppositions, social contexts, and historical changes has directly or indirectly shaped much of the philosophical debate. While respecting the different approaches inspired by different philosophical traditions, there has been a great convergence on the impossibility of achieving certainties in the scientific, ethical, or aesthetic fields that are definitive, unchanging, and independent of history. This has had far-reaching and profound implications for the very identity of philosophy.