A Hundred Years of English Philosophy

314 Pages·11.024 MB·English

by  Nikolay Milkov (auth.)

A HUNDRED YEARS OF ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES SERIES
VOLUME94
Founded by Wilfrid S. Sellars and Keith Lehrer
Editor
Keith Lehrer, University ofA rizona, Tucson
Associate Editor
Stewart Cohen, Arizona State University, Tempe
Board of Consulting Editors
Lynne Rudder Baker, University ofM assachusetts at Amherst
Radu Bogdan, Tulane University, New Orleans
Marian David, University of Notre Dame
Allan Gibbard, University ofM ichigan
Denise Meyerson, Macquarie University
Franc;ois Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod, EHESS, Paris
Stuart Silvers, Clemson University
Barry Smith, State University of New York at Buffalo
Nicholas D. Smith, Lewis & Clark College
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
A HUNDRED YEARS OF ENGLISH
PHILOSOPHY
by
NIKOLAY MILKOV
University of Bielefeld, Germany
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-6345-8 ISBN 978-94-017-0177-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-0177-8
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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To Sarah Tiffany
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction
1. Objectives and Authors 1
2. Oxbridge Circles and Schools 2
PART I: CAMBRIDGE ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
1 G. E. Moore-The Project for a New Philosophy
1. Moore's Development in the Ambience of Cambridge Esoteric Philosophy 13
2. Examination of Moore's Method 16
3. Basic Points of Moore's Philosophy 21
4. Tractatus Logico-Ethicus 25
5. Epistemology and Truth 27
6. First Theses of 'Analytical Scholastics' 29
7. The Middle Moore 37
8. The Later Moore 40
9. Epilogue. Moore's Archimedean Point 43
2 Bertrand Russell-The New Method as a Logic
1. Russell Rejects Neo-Hegelianism 47
2. The Turn of 1900 and Russell's Paradox 50
3. The Point of Russell's Theory of Descriptions 59
4 Russell's Theory of Names 63
5. The Historical Context of Russell's Theory of Descriptions 65
6. Logic as the Organon of Philosophy 70
7. Russell's Logic as Calculus Ratiocinator 75
8. Epistemology and Ontology 78
3 Ludwig Wittgenstein-Logical Meditations
1. Wittgenstein's Method and System 83
2. Logical Meditations 90
3. Objects, States of Affairs, Propositions 94
4. Implicit Metaphysics and Epistemology 99
5. The Creative Turn 104
6. The Dynamic Turn 108
7. Was Wittgenstein a Philosopher of Language? 113
PART II: OXFORD ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
4 Gilbert Ryle-The Analytical Method Explained
1. First Theses in Philosophy 119
2. Pursuit of Philosophical Logic 123
3. The Method of Mind 129
4. Ryle's Philosophical Psychology 133
5. Conceptual Examination 139
6. Ryle's Plato 143
7. The Unrealised Project on Thinking 146
Vlll
5 J. L. Austin-Analytical Philosophy as a Strict Science
1. Introduction 151
2. The Pre-War Austin 153
3. The Turn of 1946 155
4. Radical Epistemology 157
5. Linguistic Phenomenology 162
6. Austin as a Philosopher 167
7. Linguistic Phenomenology Applied 168
8. Doing Things with Words 171
9. 'Philosophical Fun' 177
6 P. F. Strawson-The Justificational Turn
1. Forming Philosophical Intuitions 182
2. Strawson's 'Logical Neo-Traditionalism' 185
3. Influences 188
4. The Problem of Individuals 193
5. Reconstruction of Strawson' s Scheme of Individuals 197
6. Logical Subjects 200
7. Subject and Predicate Again 203
8. Strawson's 'Dilemmas' 210
7 Michael Dummett-Revision of the Project
1. Dummett's Approach 214
2. Impacts 214
3. Frege's Philosophy of Language 215
4. Frege's Philosophy of Mathematics 225
5. Basic Ideas 229
6. Dummett's Philosophy of Language 233
7. Theory of Meaning 237
8. Dummett's Philosophy of Mathematics 241
Bibliography 245
Index ofN ames 270
Index of Concepts 275
Preface
This book is a historical investigation of the leading philosophical movement in
England in the twentieth century. In seven chapters, the intellectual development of
the most prominent representatives of analytic philosophy-Moore, Russell and
Wittgenstein in Cambridge, and Ryle, Austin, Strawson and Dummett in Oxford-is
traced.
The book does not aim, however, at delivering a story. This means, above all, that
generalisations and conclusions are reduced to a minimum-an approach adopted in
an endeavour to avert the danger of subjectivism that interpreting the philosophers
under scrutiny would impose. My hope is that by following this aproach, my inves
tigation will stimulate readers to make their own generalisations and conclusions on
the basis of the objectively presented data.
Instead, my aim is to articulate a flawless, comprehensive description of the phil
osophical texts of the seven most significant analytic philosophers in England in the
twentieth century. For this purpose, all their articles and books have been sifted
through in order to pick out the most representative parts. For obvious reasons, only
the chapters on Russell and Wittgenstein, and-to a lesser extent-the chapter on
Moore, are more theoretical.
My first objective is to cover as many themes and problems discussed by these
seven authors as possible. In this way I strive to follow the main tenet of analytic
philosophy: flawless analysis. The second objective of the book is to achieve a syn
optic effect-to reveal the true picture (Gestalt) of twentieth-century analytic phi
losophy in England. For this purpose, I have placed the philosophers examined (or,
rather, their philosophical texts) side by side, concentrating on exactly those points
in them in which the development of not only new concepts and theories, but also
new techniques and methods, can be traced in a chain of inter-dependence.
Thus, my hope is that this investigation will provide a comprehensive review
(ubersichtliche Darstellung) of the history of analytic philosophy in twentieth
century England. And further, that it will be useful as a reference book both for
analytic concepts-this is why I have prepared so extensive an Index of Concepts
and for further work on the arguments and theories that these philosophers dis
cussed, or on their individual philosophies per se. In a more general perspective, the
study can be seen as a cross between traditional books on the history of analytic
philosophy in England (like those of Passmore, Urmson, Warnock, Hacker), and a
kind of Dictionary of the Philosophical Works ofthe seven leading analytic philoso
phers in England in the twentieth century.
The book is a modified version of my Bielefeld Habilitationsschrift, and I should
like to express my gratitude to the members of the Habilitationskommission for their
work. I am indebted also to Patricia Skorge and Stephen Ryan for help in polishing
my English in this book. Most of all, however, I thank my wife Michaela-for her
constant encouragement and inspiration.
Bielefeld, 5 July 2002
Introduction
1. OBJECTIVES AND AUTHORS
(I) OBJECTIVES. The investigation undertaken in this book tries to provide an under
standing of the main points in the development of the analytic programme in phi
losophy as practised in England during the twentieth century. G. H. von Wright, at
one time the Professor of Philosophy in Cambridge, wrote in 1993:
The history of the [analytical] movement has not yet been written in full. With its increased
diversification, it becomes pertinent to try to identify its most essential features and distin
guish them from later additions which are alien to its origins. (von Wright 1993, p. 26)
In the same year Michael Dummett, then the Wykeham Professor of Logic at Ox
ford, noted: 'I hope that such a history will be written: it would be fascinating'
(Dummett 1993a, pp. viii-ix).
The task of this book is to justify these hopes. Indeed, in recent years, there has
been a growing endeavour to find out by historical means what analytic philosophy
really is. Here we can mention the works of Dummett, Origins of Analytical Phi
losophy (1993); Hacker, Wittgenstein 's Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Phi
losophy (1996); The Rise of Analytic Philosophy, edited by H.-J. Glock (1997); The
Story of Analytic Philosophy (1998), edited by Biletzki and Matar; Avrum Stroll,
Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy (2000). However, none of these books-in
contrast to this one-were comprehensive, thoroughly organised, exhaustive studies
of the history of analytical philosophy as developed in England in the twentieth cen
tury.
P. M. S. Hacker's book, for instance, concentrated above all on portraying the
analytical movement in English philosophy from the perspective of Wittgenstein. As
I shall show in this study, however, despite his having been a leading figure in it, it
is misleading to put Wittgenstein at the centre of this movement.
(II) THE SELECTION OF AUTHORS. The aim of this book is to portray the analytic
philosophy of the last century as practised in England by its seven most prominent
representatives: Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Ryle, Austin, Strawson, Dummett. I
shall address this task in a series of seven essays.
The main criterion in selecting these seven philosophers was that each had been an
actual leader of English philosophy for a certain period of time, as opposed to being
prominent in present-day analytic discourse. I have followed this principle in an
effort to reconstruct the authentic history of analytic philosophy in England, not its
history as seen from the point of view oftoday's status quo.
Of course, many English philosophers would argue to the contrary; they will say
that 'it is a complete falsification of history ... to speak as if a band of pygmies had
been dominated [English philosophy of the first half of the century] by the gigantic
figures of G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell' (Paton 1956, pp. 343, 342), and later
also Wittgenstein, Ryle, Austin, Strawson, Dummett. To this one can retort: Natu
rally there were many other prominent non-analytical philosophers in twentieth
century England; for example, R. G. Collingwood or Samuel Alexander. It is not