The Rise of Analytic Philosophy, 18791930

A fresh and compelling portrait of the birth of modern analytic philosophy, viewed through the lens of a detailed study of the work of the four philosophers who contributed most to shaping it: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Frank Ramsey.

In this book Michael Potter offers a fresh and compelling portrait of the birth of modern analytic philosophy, viewed through the lens of a detailed study of the work of the four philosophers who contributed most to shaping it: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Frank Ramsey. It covers the remarkable period of discovery that began with the publication of Frege's Begriffsschrift in 1879 and ended with Ramsey's death in 1930. Potter-one of the most influential scholars of this period in philosophy-presents a deep but accessible account of the break with absolute idealism and neo-Kantianism, and the emergence of approaches that exploited the newly discovered methods in logic. Like his subjects, Potter focusses principally on philosophical logic, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics, but he also discusses epistemology, meta-ethics, and the philosophy of language. The book is an essential starting point for any student attempting to understand the work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Ramsey, as well as their interactions and their larger intellectual milieux. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to cast light on current philosophical problems through a better understanding of their origins.

"The book is an impressive achievement, and it will be an important contribution to the literature on Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Ramsey, and the history of early analytic philosophy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learned a lot from it. It is not only a state-of-the-art contribution to scholarship but will also be a valuable textbook for courses on the history of early analytic philosophy, or on the work of one or more of the four philosophers discussed." --David G. Stern, University of Iowa, USA "This book is a significant contribution to studies in the history of analytic philosophy and will benefit upper-level undergraduates studying this material for the first time, as well as active researchers in the area." --James Levine, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Autorentext

Michael Potter is Professor of Logic at Cambridge University, UK, and a Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. His studies in the history of analytic philosophy include Reason's Nearest Kin (2000) and Wittgenstein's Notes on Logic (2009). He is also noted for work in the foundations of mathematics, including Set Theory and its Philosophy (2004).

Inhalt

Introduction

Part I Frege

1. Biography

2. Logic before 1879

3. Begriffsschrift I: Foundations of logic

4. Begriffsschrift II: Propositional logic

5. Begriffsschrift III: Quantification

6. Begriffsschrift IV: Identity

7. Begriffsschrift V: The ancestral

8. Early philosophy of logic

9. The Hierarchy

10. Grundlagen I: The context principle

11. Grundlagen II: Arithmetical truth

12. Grundlagen III: Numbers

13. Grundlagen IV: The formal project

14. Sense and reference I: Singular terms

15. Sense and reference II: Sentences

16. Sense anad references III: Concept-words

17. Grundgesetze I: Types

18. Grundgesetze II: Extensions

19. The Frege-Hilbert correspondence

20. Later writings

21. Frege's Legacy
    Part II Russell

1. Biography

2. Bradley

3. Geometry

4. McTaggart

5. German Mathematics

6. Whitehead

7. Moore

8. Leibniz

9. Peano

10. Early logicism

11. Denoting concepts

12. The contradiction

13. On denoting

14. Truth

15. Types

16. Middle logicism

17. Acquaintance

18. Matter

19. Pre-war judgement

20. Facts

21. Late logicism

22. Post-war judgement

23. Neutral monism

24. Russell's legacy ** III Wittgenstein

25. Biography

26. Facts

27. Pictures

28. Propositions

29. Sense

30. Wittgenstein's concept-script

31. Objects

32. Identity

33. Solipsism

34. Ordinary language

35. Minds

36. Logic

37. The metaphysical subject

38. Arithmetic

39. Science

40. Ethics

41. The mystical

42. The legacy of the Tractatus **** IV Ramsey

43. Biography

44. Truth

45. Knowledge

46. The foundations of mathematics I: Types

47. The foundations of mathematics II: Logicism

48. Universals

49. Degrees of belief

50. Facts and propositions

51. Last papers

52. Ramsey's legacy Bibliography