Schools of thought

Explanations > Critical Theory > Schools of thought

There are many different schools of thought that have arisen during development of ideas in Critical Theory, Philosophy and other related fields. Here are just a few:

• Constructionism and Constructivism: Building worlds in your head.
• Conventionalism: We tend to conform to conventions.
• Deconstruction: Dismantling binary opposites.
• Ethnicity: And the full panoply of variation.
• Empiricism: Truth comes only from direct experience.
• Hermeneutics: The exploration of meaning
• Idealism: Our experience of the world is, for us, the world.
• Feminism: Challenging the source of female identity.

• Phenomenology: Objective exploration of experience.
• Positivism: Only provable fact is valid knowledge.
• Postmodernism: Holistic, anti-deconstructionist viewpoint.

• Post-structuralism: Structuralism is seen as too simplistic.

• Postmodernism: Things are not as simple as they seem.

• Rationalism: The use of pure thought.
• Realism: Things exist, whether or not anyone is thinking of them.
• Semiotics: The study of signs.

• Structuralism: A thing is the sum of its parts and their relationships.

• Utilitarianism: People seek to optimize value.

See also

Social Research