The Rise of Analytic Philosophy, 1879–1930: From Frege to Ramsey

Description

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. Contents Acknowledgments 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 and Reference III: Concept-Words 17 Grundgesetze I: Types 18 Grundgesetze II: Extensions 19 The Frege–Hilbert Correspondence 20 Late Writings 21 Frege’s Legacy Part II: Russell 22 Biography 23 Bradley 24 Geometry 25 McTaggart 26 German Mathematics 27 Whitehead 28 Moore 29 Leibniz 30 Peano 31 Early Logicism 32 Denoting Concepts 33 The Contradiction 34 On Denoting 35 Truth 36 Types 37 Middle Logicism 38 Acquaintance 39 Matter 40 Pre-war Judgment 41 Facts 42 Late Logicism 43 Post-war Judgment 44 Neutral Monism 45 Russell’s Legacy Part III: Wittgenstein 46 Biography 47 Facts 48 Pictures 49 Propositions 50 Sense 51 Wittgenstein’s Concept-Script 52 Objects 53 Identity 54 Solipsism 55 Ordinary Language 56 Minds 57 Logic 58 The Metaphysical Subject 59 Arithmetic 60 Science 61 Ethics 62 The Mystical 63 The Legacy of the Tractatus Part IV: Ramsey 64 Biography 65 Truth 66 Knowledge 67 The Foundations of Mathematics I: Types 68 The Foundations of Mathematics II: Logicism 69 Universals 70 Degrees of Belief 71 Facts and Propositions 72 Last Papers 73 Ramsey’s Legacy Bibliography Index