Russell Idealism And The Emergence Of Analytic Philosophy

This book deals with a crucial period in the formation of twentieth-century analytic philosophy. It discusses the tradition of British Idealism, and the rejection of that tradition by Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore at the beginning of this century. It goes on to examine the very influential work of Russell in the period up to the First World War, and addresses the question of what we can learn about the nature of analytic philosophy through a close examination of its origins. - ;Introduction; Part I: The idealist background: T. H. Green; F. H. Bradley; Russell's idealist period; Part II: Platonic Atomism: Introduction; The underlying metaphysics; Russell's Principles of Mathematics; `On denoting'; Part III: Logic, fact, and knowledge: Introduction; The logic of r Principia Mathematica; Judgement, belief, and knowledge: The emergence of a method; Bibliography; Index -

This collection of new essays from distinguished philosophers and Russell scholars from around the world seeks, in various ways, to explore Russell's own unique and enduringly important contribution to shaping the concerns and the methods of contemporary analytical philosophers. It includes both general discussions of the nature of analytical philosophy and minutely detailed analyses of Russell's own arguments, and covers the whole range of Russell's famously varied output, from his Essay on the Foundations of Geometry to his often neglected work on ethics. Taken together this collection shows us why Russell's work deserves to be reconsidered and provides essential guidelines as to the form that reconsideration should take. It will be read by all who seek to understand, not only Russell's contributions to the analytical tradition, but the nature of that tradition itself.

The work of Bertrand Russell had a decisive influence on the emergence of analytic philosophy, and on its subsequent development. The essays collected in this volume, by one of the leading authorities on Russell's philosophy, all aim at recapturing and articulating aspects of Russell's philosophical vision during his most influential and important period, the two decades following his break with Idealism in 1899. One theme of the collection concerns Russell's views about propositions and their analysis, and the relation of those ideas to his rejection of Idealism. Another theme is the development of Russell's logicism, culminating in Whitehead's and Russell's Principia Mathematica, and Hylton offers a revealing view of the conception of logic which underlies it. Here again there is an emphasis on Russell's argument against Idealism, on the idea that his logicism was a crucial part of that argument. A further focus of the volume is Russell's views about functions and propositional functions. This theme is part of a contrast that Hylton draws between Russell's general philosophical position and that of Frege; in particular, there is a close parallel with the quite different views that the two philosophers held about the nature of philosophical analysis. Hylton also sheds valuable light on the much-disputed idea of an operation, which Wittgenstein advances in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

This 2007 book examines the possibilities for the rehabilitation of Hegelian thought within analytic philosophy. From its inception, the analytic tradition has in general accepted Bertrand Russell's hostile dismissal of the idealists, based on the claim that their metaphysical views were irretrievably corrupted by the faulty logic that informed them. These assumptions are challenged by the work of such analytic philosophers as John McDowell and Robert Brandom, who, while contributing to core areas of the analytic movement, nevertheless have found in Hegel sophisticated ideas that are able to address problems which still haunt the analytic tradition after a hundred years. Paul Redding traces the consequences of the displacement of the logic presupposed by Kant and Hegel by modern post-Fregean logic, and examines the developments within twentieth-century analytic philosophy which have made possible an analytic re-engagement with a previously dismissed philosophical tradition.

A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls presents a comprehensive overview of the historical development of all major aspects of analytic philosophy, the dominant Anglo-American philosophical tradition in the twentieth century. Features coverage of all the major subject areas and figures in analytic philosophy - including Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Gottlob Frege, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, and many others Contains explanatory background material to help make clear technical philosophical concepts Includes listings of suggested further readings Written in a clear, direct style that presupposes little previous knowledge of philosophy

The concepts of particular and universal have become so familiar that their significance has become difficult to discern, like coins that have been passed back and forth too many times, worn smooth so their values can no longer be read. On the Genealogy of Universals seeks to overcome our sense of over-familiarity with these concepts by providing a case study of their evolution during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a study that shows how the history of these concepts is bound up with the origins and development of analytic philosophy itself. Understanding how these concepts were taken up, transfigured and given up by the early analytic philosophers, enables us to recover and reanimate the debate amongst them that otherwise remains Delphic - to interpret some of the early, originating texts of analytic philosophy that have hitherto baffled commentators, including Moore's early papers, to appreciate afresh the neglected contributions of philosophical figures that historians of analytic philosophy have mostly since forgot, including Stout and Whitehead, and to shed new light upon the relationships of Moore to Russell and Russell to Wittgenstein.

This systematic and historical treatment of Russell's contributions to analytic philosophy, from his embrace of analysis in 1898 to his landmark theory of descriptions in 1905, draws important connections between his philosophically motivated conception of analysis and the technical apparatus he devised to facilitate analyses in mathematics

This investigation is a historical review of twentieth-century analytical philosophy in England. In seven chapters, the intellectual development of its most prominent representatives - Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Ryle, Austin, Strawson, Dummett - is traced. The book offers synopses of the main philosophical texts of these seven philosophers. It will serve as a reference book covering all the central problems discussed by these seven authors.