ANGLO-AMERICAN EMPIRICISM AND THE ABHORRENCE OF ESSENCE

Is there really a fundamental difference between a rational, often ontologically loaded research method, that characterizes Continental philosophy, and an Anglo-American research method based on empiricism, that strongly abhors essence and an ontological foundation of reality? How is empiricism, and its abhorrence of essence, interrelated with technoscientific development, scientism and technocracy, politics, economics, utilitarianism and pragmatism, climate change, way of life and an education with an almost allergic aversion to any concept of essence in human life? How and under which presuppositions can philosophy really contribute to the understanding of the essence of happiness and its achievement, particularly within the hostile sociopolitical, economic and environmental conditions, created globally by neoliberalism? Crucial questions, among others, that are highlighted and critically discussed in this book, based on a critical view of Anglo-American empiricism and its historically and philosophically grounded abhorrence of essence; in this context, "essence" is not used in a conservative or, for example, anti-feminist manner. Joannis N. Markopoulos, born 1948 in Thessaloniki/ Greece, holds a Master's degree in Engineering (Dipl.Ing.) from the Technical University of Darmstadt/Germany (1973) and a Dr. degree in Physical Chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1981). He is, since the academic year 2020/2021, Professor of the Philosophy of Technoscience at the Postgraduate Interdepartamental Course "Philosophical, Pedagogical and Interdisciplinary Anthropology" at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.); he is a former assoc. Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of A.U.Th., and a former Professor of the Philosophy and Ethics of Science and Technology at the Faculty of Education at the same University; personal site with a short CV in English: https://users.auth.gr/imarkopo