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Joe Schmid is a bit off on continental philosophy having a "lower barrier of entry" as opposed to analytical, requiring less secondary knowledge (i.e., maths, etc). One of the most persistent (if not persuasive) arguments in favor of the analytical mode is its conceptual, definitional clarity, cogency, and rigor, while continental is perennially derided as jargon-filled, overly citational, and assumes deep knowledge of prevailing notions in history, sociology, literary theory, etc. One frequently interacts with both scholars and layman who can easily read an introductory textbook in analytic philosophy, while simultaneously lost digging into a popular work of some Verso Press philosopher. This, of course, says nothing of the highly specialized continental excursions into mathematical issues: see the work Alain Badiou (especially in set-theory!), Fernando Zalamea, and in an early time, Jean Cavaillès and Husserl.
I agree, people like *Kī*-er keggerd 😆 are very rhetorically intriguing. I also think existential questions about meaning and purpose and stuff are closely connected to practical things like motivations or justifications of behaviors. So it kinda makes sense that these ideas are the most popular ones. I was talking to a coworker of mine and she mentioned Camus and some of his ideas to me, but she didn’t know he was one of the big names in existentialism, or what that even is!! The literary element helps it get popular.
The best philosophy paper I ever read was written by a CompSci proffesor. In that paper, it is pointed out that there is a very elegant relationship between Topological spaces and Logical algebras. If "Minds" are some kind of "logical algebra system" and the physical world can be exactly represented as a Topological space and its transformations, then Dualism is solved, but the assumption of primitive substances is demolished..
I think topics Joe mentioned and identified with continentals, as capitalism vs communism or how to behave in front of adversity are appropiate studied in analytic philosophy, but not in his fields of specialization, like virtue ethics or political philosophy.
What is a Philosopher, is answer solely by the answer, someone who does philosophy. Doing philosophy entails the deliberate and logical examination of information, concepts, premises, and propositions to produce a coherent worldview and associated principles conducive to guiding action. Do you have a PhD? Yay, you have credentials. Not adequate to be a philosopher. Have you memorized all of the great philosophical works of history and can quote them on demand? Yay, you have eidetic memory. Not adequate to be a philosopher. Do you write a lot of books on the subject of philosophy? Yay, you're an author. Not adequate to be a philosopher. Nor necessary.
Wouldn't that make some philosophers who are hyper focused in a niche area, not philosophers, because they don't talk about a coherent worldview or principles for guiding action? (BTW I do think philosophers should have these two things, or at least some ideas about them.)
I second Jackson Reinhardt's objection to "continental philosophy" having a lower barrier of entry (scare-quotes because there is no such thing, just like there is no such thing as "analytic philosophy"). A key figure which splits the history of philosophy for analytics and continentals is of course Hegel (analytic philosophy was after all born at least in part as a reaction against British Hegelianism). And Hegel remains an entry point to a lot of continental philosophy, just as first-order predicate logic is an entry point to a lot of analytic philosophy. Now maybe it's because I'm sort of mathematically minded, but I think that learning a bit of logic is far easier than learning to read Hegel...
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