Is this a silly question?

Is this a silly question? — TiredThinker

It's not.

It's just... boring.

I thought this same question quite a while back, so I don’t find it silly or boring. I’m really not knowledgeable enough to comment much on the topic, but I know idealism is often associated with Germany, and there’s a common thread throughout Greek philosophy. But, when I was pondering this question I decided that these themes were likely due to exposure. We take mass communication for granted nowadays. I mean a few hundred years ago, when a philosopher in your country establishes a novel idea that becomes popular, you’re more likely to be influenced by that idea due to your exposure to it. It would have taken some time to spread to other countries I imagine.

Is this a silly question? — TiredThinker

It's not a terrible question, but there are limitations to how one might assess this. For instance, to what extent is a nation in 1720 the same nation it might be in 1920? How do we determine what a shared view looks like between countrymen? Or, do we look at the themes of philosophers and see if the same preoccupations are consistent in particular locations/contexts? Then we might ask, to what extent are these preoccupations a reflection of an ongoing discourse within a discipline in one place rather than a reflection of the tastes and temperaments of a people? Could Nietzsche have been French? Could Derrida have been German? Could Ortega Y Gassett been Australian? Fucked if I know...

Assume to compare philosophers by their generational time period. I'm just wondering if there are themes.

Well, the ancients were firsts in questioning the universe and objective reality.

Then came the 16th - 17th century with the god meditation and the self.

Then the beginning of the 19th century, existentialism and nothingness.

Then the twentieth century, analytics, epistemology/logic, you know, the clean philosophy who wouldn't touch dirt if their brain depended on it.