A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls

A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: from Russell to Rawls provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of all major aspects of Anglo–American analytic philosophy. Beginning with the seminal works of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore, Stephen P. Schwartz covers the foremost figures and schools of analytic philosophy, including, in addition to those already mentioned, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, Rawls, and many others. As well as presenting arguments put forth by individual philosophers, Schwartz traces the various social and political influences that helped shape analytic philosophy as it evolved over the last century. Topics considered include the emergence of logical positivism and its critics, ordinary language philosophy, Wittgenstein′s self–critical philosophy, the American neo–pragmatists, analytic ethics, late–20th–century developments, and future directions. A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy offers illuminating insights into the origins and 100–year evolution of the dominant force in Western philosophy.

Preface xi Introduction: What is Analytic Philosophy? 1 Leading Analytic Philosophers 6 1 Russell and Moore 8 Empiricism, Mathematics, and Symbolic Logic 8 Logicism 12 Russell on Definite Descriptions 20 G. E. Moore′s Philosophy of Common Sense 27 Moore and Russell on Sense Data 30 Moore′s and Russell′s Anti–Hegelianism 33 Summary 38 2 Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Logical Positivism 46 Introduction 46 Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus 48 Historical Note: The Vienna Circle and their Allies 58 The Elimination of Metaphysics and the Logical Positivist Program 59 The Demise of the Vienna Circle 68 The Influence of the Logical Positivists 69 3 Responses to Logical Positivism: Quine, Kuhn, and American Pragmatism 76 Introduction 76 The Demise of the Verifiability Criterion of Meaningfulness 78 Quine’s Rejection of the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction 82 Quinean Empiricism without the Dogmas 86 American Pragmatists after Quine: Nelson Goodman, Richard Rorty, and Hilary Putnam 101 4 Oxford Ordinary Language Philosophy and Later Wittgenstein 119 Introduction 119 The Attack on Formalism – Strawson and Ryle 124 Philosophy of Language – Austin and Wittgenstein 128 Philosophy of Mind – Ryle, Strawson, and Wittgenstein 138 The Rejection of Sense Data Theory 147 The Legacy of Ordinary Language Philosophy 153 5 Responses to Ordinary Language Philosophy: Logic, Language, and Mind 160 Part 1: Formal Logic and Philosophy of Language 161 G¨odel and Tarski 161 Davidson 166 Grice 174 Carnap – Meaning and Necessity 178 Chomsky 180 Part 2: Philosophy of Mind 183 Functionalism 183 Objections to Functionalism – Bats and the Chinese Room 188 Anomalous Monism 192 The Problem of Mental Causation 194 6 The Rebirth of Metaphysics 204 Modal Logic 204 Possible Worlds 212 Problems with the Canonical Conception of Possible Worlds 216 Transworld Identity and Identification 223 The Modal Version of the Ontological Argument 229 7 Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds: Kripke, Putnam, and Donnellan 239 Introduction 239 The Traditional Theory of Meaning and Reference 240 Kripke′s and Donnellan′s Criticism of the Traditional Theory: Names and Descriptions 243 Natural Kind Terms 247 Problems for the New Theory of Reference 253 Applications of the New Theory of Reference to the Philosophy of Mind 257 The Social, Cultural, and Institutional Basis of Meaning and Reference 260 8 Ethics and Metaethics in the Analytic Tradition 264 Introduction 264 G. E. Moore′s Principia Ethica 266 The Non–Cognitivism of C. L. Stevenson 269 The Universal Prescriptivism of R. M. Hare 272 The Return to Substantive Ethics 275 Questioning the Fact/Value Divide 278 Peter Singer and Animal Liberation 281 John Rawls′ Theory of Justice 285 9 Epilogue: Analytic Philosophy Today and Tomorrow 299 Analytic Philosophy since 1980 299 What is the Future of Analytic Philosophy? 321 References 327 Index 337

Stephen P. Schwartz is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College, New York. He has published numerous articles in leading analytic philosophy journals.

“Schwartz′s book…is, in my estimation, the most useful introduction to the history of analytic philosophy currently available for a general audience.”  ( Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews , 15 December 2012) “As far removed as I am from my own university studies in the history of philosophy, I found reading the book a bracing refresher of things learned long ago (and sometimes forgotten) and a source of more than a few new insights on familiar controversies." ( Teaching Philosophy , 1 March 2013) “Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower–and upper–level undergraduates.”  ( Choice , 1 December 2012)