The fundamental object of analytic philosophy is Truth. Its fundamental principle by which it seeks the truth is the principle of non-contradiction: that no two contradictory propositions are simultaneously true. As regards what is normally termed “Continental” philosophy--by some called “philosophy of life”--its fundamental object is human consciousness, its fundamental principle being the human subject’s stake in what is going on in life and the world.

By this principle of the human stake in human life and consciousness, I mean the following. It is indisputable in my estimation that the human subject, wherever and whenever he be found, has an incredible interest in all that happens. For all we know, we all go to hell after death; for all we know we all go to heaven, all are born again terrestrially, or all die with nothing at all beyond the grave. In any of these possibilities, the human subject has incredible interest in what will be his future. And this stake in what is true life--the truth in whatever its topic be, whether life after death and God, or success and failure in this life--this stake the human subject has in life is the fundamental principle belonging to Continental philosophy, or “philosophy of life”.

If we may imagine now, as did Descartes, the epistemic possibilities for what this life and world really may be, we find that there are incredibly horrible possibilities for what may come to pass for us. Suppose now that we are in fact under the power of Descartes’s Demiurge: that we are in fact in a false world, being sent false perceptions, and under the total and absolute power of some wicked entity. Obviously then any suffering imaginable may lie before us in our future; just about any torture, anguish, and hell we can imagine: these may very well be our destiny. This is not, however, simply some vague possibility that need not be considered for one moment as being possible reality; in fact, for all we know it is as real as anything ever was. In other words, it could very well be the truth, whether we are able to believe in its possibility or not; and if it is, any torture conceivable may lie before us in our future.

But let’s not take such an extreme example to illustrate the stake we have in life and truth. There is hardly a torture conceivable in this terrestrial world--considering conventional reality to be true this time--that has not come to pass for some man, woman or child. Burning, drowning, being tortured to death, going hungry for months on end: all of these can happen, and have happened to many millions. This is what I mean by us having a stake in this world, in this life; and if such is our destiny (as it may very well be), what shall then matter the questions of analytic philosophy, the rationalism/empiricism debate and so on? What ought we to care about the falsity or reality in human freedom or the realism/idealism controversy?

So with Continental philosophy, the fundamental principle is that the human subject has incredible stake in life, the world, and what the truth may be. With this there comes something totally absent in analytic philosophy: a goal. Certainly truth is the goal of analytic philosophy, but totally dispassionately. It is the goal in the sense that the goal of chess is to win; it is merely an irreducible proposition that philosophy seeks the truth, for no other reason than that this is what philosophy is. But in Continental philosophy, we have a goal in the sense of the goal being the solution: having a stake in what comes to pass for us, in what the truth may turn out to be; and conversely with the possibility that this trial called life may end up with our failure, we see that in Continental philosophy there is a true and ultimate goal. That goal can only be the solution. Solution to what? To the human predicament. That there is a stake in life and truth means that there is the possibility of success or failure, which in turn means that we seek success--a solution. There is a possibility now of both success and failure in this life--as regards not only abstract thought but faith, life, and daily intercourse with the world--and so the aim of Continental philosophy, its fundamental goal, is a solution to the human condition: success in the human trial, and triumph in the human crucible.