A term often used by philosophers and historians for ideas, it differs from the modern definition.
Modern means post-medieval (Middle Ages – a period covering roughly the period from 500 to 1500) and post-modern.
The beginning of the modern era is debatable. It is sometimes considered in the terms of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1700-1831), as many of the most important philosophical currents of the 19th and even early 20th centuries (existentialism, Marxism, pragmatism, and analytical philosophy) are defined to some extent. as a reaction against Hegel. Defined in this way, modern means post-Hegelian. It is sometimes assumed that the beginning should date back to the late 19th century or early 20th century.
René Descartes (1596 – 1650) and Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) are modern thinkers, while John Dewey (1859 – 1952), Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976), and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) are contemporary.
Although it could point to a long and rich history, semiotics, understood as a general theory of signs, aware of its differences and (to some extent) its autonomy, is a contemporary development.
