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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction to Volume 2 xiii
PART ONE: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 1
CHAPTER 1
Rejection of the Tractarian Conception of Language and Analysis 3
CHAPTER 2
Rule Following and the Private Language Argument 32
Suggested Further Reading 62
PART TWO: CLASSICS OF ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY: TRUTH, GOODNESS, THE MIND, AND ANALYSIS 65
CHAPTER 3
Ryle's Dilemmas 67
CHAPTER 4
Ryle's Concept of Mind 92
CHAPTER 5
Strawson's Performative Theory of Truth 115
CHAPTER 6
Hare's Performative Theory of Goodness 135
Suggested Further Reading 153
PART THREE: MORE CLASSICS OF ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY: THE RESPONSE TO RADICAL SKEPTICISM 155
CHAPTER 7
Malcolm's Paradigm Case Argument 157
CHAPTER 8
Austin's Sense and Sensibilia 171
Suggested Further Reading 193
PART FOUR: PAUL GRICE AND THE END OF ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY 195
CHAPTER 9
Language Use and the Logic of Conversation 197
Suggested Further Reading 219
PART FIVE: THE PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM OF WILLARD VAN ORMAN QUINE 221
CHAPTER 10
The Indeterminacy of Translation 223
CHAPTER 11
Quine's Radical Semantic Eliminativism 259
Suggested Further Reading 287
PART SIX: DONALD DAVIDSON ON TRUTH AND MEANING 289
CHAPTER 12
Theories of Truth as Theories of Meaning 291
CHAPTER 13
Truth, Interpretation, and the Alleged Unintelligibility of Alternative Conceptual Schemes 312
Suggested Further Reading 331
PART SEVEN: SAUL KRIPKE ON NAMING AND NECESSITY 333
CHAPTER 14
Names, Essence, and Possibility 335
CHAPTER 15
The Necessary Aposteriori 372
CHAPTER 16
The Contingent Apriori 397
CHAPTER 17
Natural Kind Terms and Theoretical Identification Statements 423
Suggested Further Reading 457
EPILOGUE
The Era of Specialization 461
Index 477
