History of Analytic Philosophy

Catalog description

This course will explore important figures and themes from the history of analytic philosophy. We will start with the birth of modern logic in the seminal works of Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell. As time permits, we will also discuss the project of philosophical analysis in the works of G.E. Moore, Russell and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein, the rise of logical positivism and emotivism (Rudolph Carnap, Susan Stebbing, A. J. Ayer, C. L. Stevenson), W. V. Quine's critique of Logical Positivism (in particular, his critique of the analytic-synthetic distinction), and the rise of ordinary language philosophy in the works of J. L. Austin, Peter Strawson, and the later Wittgenstein.