Barry Dainton - The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy

The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy

Bloomsbury Companions

The Bloomsbury Companions series is a major series of single-volume companions to key research fields in the humanities aimed at postgraduate students, scholars, and libraries. Each companion offers a comprehensive reference resource giving an overview of key topics, research areas, new directions, and a manageable guide to beginning or developing research in the field. A distinctive feature of the series is that each companion provides practical guidance on advanced study and research in the field, including research methods and subject-specific resources.

Titles currently available in the series:

Aesthetics

Edited by Anna Christina Ribeiro

Continental Philosophy

Edited by John Mullarkey and Beth Lord

Epistemology

Edited by Andrew Cullison

Ethics

Edited by Christian Miller

Existentialism

Edited by Jack Reynolds, Felicity Joseph, and Ashley Woodward

Hegel

Edited by Allegra de Laurentiis and Jeffrey Edwards

Hobbes

Edited by S. A. Lloyd

Hume

Edited by Alan Bailey and Dan OBrien

Kant

Edited by Gary Banham, Dennis Schulting, and Nigel Hems

Leibniz

Edited by Brendan Look

Locke

Edited by S.-J. Savonious-Wroth, Paul Schuurman, and Jonathan Walmsley

Metaphysics

Edited by Robert W. Barnard and Neil A. Manson

Philosophical Logic

Edited by Leon Horston and Richard Pettigrew

Philosophy of Language

Edited by Manuel Garca-Carpintero and Max Klbel

Philosophy of Mind

Edited by James Garvey

Philosophy of Science

Edited by Steven French and Juha Saatsi

Plato

Edited by Gerald A. Press

Pragmatism

Edited by Sami Pihlstrm

Spinoza

Edited by Wiep van Bunge

Forthcoming:

Aristotle

Edited by Claudia Baracchi

Heidegger

Edited by Franois Raffoul and Eric Sean Nelson

Political Philosophy

Edited by Andrew Fiala and Matt Matravers

Socrates

Edited by John Bussanich and Nicholas D. Smith

The Bloomsbury
Companion to
Analytic Philosophy

Edited by

Barry Dainton

and

Howard Robinson

Contents

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton and Howard Robinson

Barry Dainton

Barry Dainton and Howard Robinson

Mary Leng

Barry C. Smith

Richard Gaskin

James Ladyman

Barry Loewer

Helen Beebee

E. J. Lowe

Daniel Stoljar

Mark Johnston

Ferenc Huoranszki

Bryan Frances and Allan Hazlett

Paul Snowdon

Ruth Chang

Andres Moles

Barry Dainton and Howard Robinson

Barry Dainton and Howard Robinson

Howard Robinson

The editors wish to thank everyone who helped with the project. Particular thanks to Richard Gaskin for his detailed comments on Part I, and Bloomsbury editors Sarah Campbell and Rachel Eisenhauer, for their advice, and for their patience.

In this Companion we provide a guide to analytic philosophys past, present, and future; we also attempt to specify whatif anythingis genuinely distinctive about it.

In Part I we provide an historical introduction to the movement, one that takes in Russell and Moores rejection of absolute idealism at the turn of the twentieth century, Freges contributions to logic and the foundations of mathematics, some of Russells subsequent workincluding his influential theory of descriptionsWittgensteins early and later philosophies, logical positivism, and the ordinary language period of Oxford philosophy. We also introduce some of the more influential doctrines of four important American philosophersQuine, Davidson, Putnam, and Kripkealong with more general developments in analytic ethics, and the philosophy of mind. The historical survey ends with the early 1980s. Although it makes no pretense at being exhaustive, the survey does cover the main episodes in the development of the movement in a manner thatwe hopehelps bring what is truly distinctive about analytic philosophy into clear view.

Part II aims to present the state-of-the-art in the major areas of analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophy is a specific movement in philosophy, with a distinct history, but the main burden of the articles is not historical: they exhibit current analytic philosophy in action. The historical material in Part I will lead the reader to the point from which the articles take off.

In Part III we turn to more recent developments, and venture some speculations as to what the near future may hold. Drawing on the earlier historical survey, we also broach the controversial question of what analytical philosophy is, and, in particular how it differs from its foilso-called Continental Philosophy. As further aids to the reader we have included an extensive glossary of key terms and concepts, an annotated bibliography, timelines of major events and publications, and a guide to further resources.

In his 1931 essay The Future of Philosophy, Moritz Schlicklogical positivist and founding member of the Vienna Circleobserved that the history of philosophy hitherto had been one of profound and irreconcilable disagreement. The doctrines of Plato are radically different from those of Aristotle, likewise the metaphysical systems of Leibniz and Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel. This undeniable historical fact might naturally lead one to doubt whether any real progress had been made in Western philosophy in the two millennia of its history; indeed, it might lead one to doubt whether genuine progress in philosophythe sort of progress that the natural sciences have been enjoying since the seventeenth centurywas even possible. Schlick goes on to pose these questions:

Will this chaos that has existed so far continue to exist in the future? Will philosophers go on contradicting each other, ridiculing each others opinions, or will there finally be some kind of universal agreement, a unity of philosophical belief in the world? (1931)

He goes on to note that there is a further consideration that might incline one to pessimism on this score: the fact that many of the competing schools have each had their own different and distinctive methods for arriving at philosophical truths. Descartes method of doubt is very different from Spinozas axiomatic approach, Kants Copernican Revolution takes us in a different direction entirely, as does Hegels dialecticand similarly for Heideggers proposal that we return to the question of Being and attempt to hear its call.

Despite all this, Schlick suggests there are reasons for being optimistic that the long reign of chaos will soon be brought to a close: philosophers will soon stop ridiculing each others opinions. Why? Because an entirely new philosophical methodology has appeared on the scene. Thanks to this new approach the centuries-long impasse will be ended. What is this revolutionary new method? Instead of attempting to uncover distinctively philosophical truths about the nature of reality, philosophers will instead devote their attention to