Philosophical analysis in the twentieth century. Volume I, The dawn of analysis / Scott Soames.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soames, Scott.

Series:

Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Analysis (Philosophy).

Methodology--History--20th century.

Methodology.

Philosophy--History--20th century.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Dawn of analysis

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a major, wide-ranging history of analytic philosophy since 1900, told by one of the tradition's leading contemporary figures. The first volume takes the story from 1900 to mid-century. The second brings the history up to date. As Scott Soames tells it, the story of analytic philosophy is one of great but uneven progress, with leading thinkers making important advances toward solving the tradition's core problems. Though no broad philosophical position ever achieved lasting dominance, Soames argues that two methodological developments have, over time, remade the philosophical landscape. These are (1) analytic philosophers' hard-won success in understanding, and distinguishing the notions of logical truth, a priori truth, and necessary truth, and (2) gradual acceptance of the idea that philosophical speculation must be grounded in sound prephilosophical thought. Though Soames views this history in a positive light, he also illustrates the difficulties, false starts, and disappointments endured along the way. As he engages with the work of his predecessors and contemporaries--from Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein to Donald Davidson and Saul Kripke--he seeks to highlight their accomplishments while also pinpointing their shortcomings, especially where their perspectives were limited by an incomplete grasp of matters that have now become clear. Soames himself has been at the center of some of the tradition's most important debates, and throughout writes with exceptional ease about its often complex ideas. His gift for clear exposition makes the history as accessible to advanced undergraduates as it will be important to scholars. Despite its centrality to philosophy in the English-speaking world, the analytic tradition in philosophy has had very few synthetic histories. This will be the benchmark against which all future accounts will be measured.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the Two Volumes

Part One. G. E. Moore on Ethics, Epistemology, and Philosophical Analysis

Chapter 1. Common Sense and Philosophical Analysis

Chapter 2. Moore on Skepticism, Perception, and Knowledge

Chapter 3. Moore On Goodness and the Foundations of Ethics

Chapter 4. The Legacies and Lost Opportunities of Moore'S Ethics

Suggested Further Reading for Part One

Part Two: Bertrand Russell on Logical and Linguistic Analysis

Chapter 5. Logical Form, Grammatical Form, and the Theory of Descriptions

Chapter 6. Logic and Mathematics: The Logicist Reduction

Chapter 7. Logical Constructions and the External World

Chapter 8. Russell'S Logical Atomism

Suggested Further Reading for Part Two

Part Three: Ludwig Wittgenstein'S Tractatus

Chapter 9. The Metaphysics of the Tractatus

Chapter 10. Meaning, Truth, and Logic in the Tractatus

Chapter 11. The Tractarian Test of Intelligibility and Its Consequences

Suggested Further Reading for Part Three

Part Four: Logical Positivism and Emotivism

Chapter 12. The Logical Positivists on Necessity and Apriori Knowledge

Chapter 13. The Rise and Fall of the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning

Chapter 14. Emotivism and Its Critics

Chapter 15. Normative Ethics in the Era of Emotivism: The Anticonsequentialism of Sir David Ross

Suggested Further Reading for Part Four

Part Five. The Post-Positivist Perspective of the Early W. V. Quine

Chapter 16. The Analytic and the Synthetic, the Necessary and the Possible, the Apriori and the Aposteriori

Chapter 17. Meaning and Holistic Verificationism

Suggested Further Reading for Part Five

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612087301

9781282087309

1282087304

9781400825790

1400825792

OCLC:

505088761