Publication Details

Abstract

The paper reflects worries about the legitimacy of using expressions “analytic philosophy” and “continental philosophy” as mutually contradicting. I argue that scholars’ inability to comprehend the divide is due to misunderstandings concerning the origin and function of language. The attempt to overcome the “bewitchment by language” has been initiated by L. Wittgenstein’s concept of family resemblance followed by theories on the nature and acquisition of words, concepts and the structure of language. Furthermore, findings in cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics and philosophy of language supported ideas on an intimate relationship between bodily processes, conceptualisation and knowledge of the world. The paper points out the legitimacy of the distinction between analytic and continental philosophy within history of philosophy as one of many original attempts of philosophers to reconsider subject matter and methods of philosophical.