Analytic Philosophy in America: And Other Historical and Contemporary Essays

377 Pages·2014·7.74 MB·English

by  Scott Soames

AnAlytic PhilosoPhy in AmericA

AnAlytic PhilosoPhy in AmericA
And other historical and contemporary essays
Scott SoameS
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2014 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton,
new Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Soames, Scott.
Analytic philosophy in America : and other historical and
contemporary essays / scott soames.
   pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-16072-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Analysis
(Philosophy)—United States—History—20th century. 2. Philosophy,
American—20th century. I. Title.
B808.5.S625 2015
146'.40973—dc23   2013023267
British Library Cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Charis SIL
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
to
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contents
introduction ix
origins of the essays xxv
Part One
Milestones
1 Analytic Philosophy in America (2008) 3
2 Methodology in Late Nineteenth- and Early 35
Twentieth- Century Analytic Philosophy
(forthcoming)
3 Language, Meaning, and Information: A Case Study 60
on the Path from Philosophy to Science
4 For Want of Cognitively Defined Propositions: 71
A History of Insights and Lost Philosophical
opportunities
5 The Place of Willard Van Orman Quine in Analytic 104
Philosophy (2013)
6 David Lewis’s Place in Analytic Philosophy 139
(forthcoming)
7 Kripke on Epistemic and Metaphysical Possibility: 167
Two Routes to the Necessary A Posteriori (2011)
Part Two
Historical Problems and Controversies
8 What Is the Frege/Russell Analysis of Quantification? 191
9 No Class: Russell on Contextual Definition and the 200
Elimination of Sets (2008)
10 Ontology, Analyticity, and Meaning: The Quine- 207
Carnap Dispute (2009)
VIII • CONTENTS
Part Three
Current Topics
11 Two Versions of Millianism (2012) 231
12 What Are Natural Kinds? (2007) 265
13 Vagueness and the Law (2012) 281
14 Toward a Theory of Legal Interpretation (2012) 299
15 Deferentialism: A Post- Originalist Theory of Legal 321
Interpretation (2013)
index 343
introduction
he fifteen essays collected in this volume include three (essays 3,
t
4, and 8) that have not previously been published, two (2, 6) that
are forthcoming, six (5, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15) that were published between
2011 and 2014, and four (1, 9, 10, 12) that were published between
2007 and 2010. The essays are divided thematically into three sections.
The first, which contains the essay from which the title of the volume
is taken, consists of seven broad overviews of important movements,
advances, and pivotal individual figures in the analytic tradition. The
second section continues with three essays on historical issues and
controversies in analytic philosophy. The final section is devoted to
current questions, including one chapter on different kinds of Millian
responses to Frege’s puzzle, one on the proper understanding of natural
kinds and natural kind terms within a broadly Kripkean account of the
necessary a posteriori, and three new essays bringing philosophy of
language to bear on the philosophy of law.
Part One: Milestones
Essay 1, analytic Philosophy in america, traces the development of an-
alytic philosophy in the United States, starting with the pragmatism
of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and (later) Clarence Irving
Lewis, and continuing through the great immigration of philosophers
of science, philosophical logicians, and logical positivists from the turn
of the twentieth century to the outbreak of World War II. With the ab-
sorption of this stream of philosophical talent, centers of philosophical
logic and analytic philosophy grew at the City College of New York,
the University of Chicago, Berkeley, UCLA, and elsewhere. By the early
1950s, the first great analytic department in America had emerged at
Harvard under the leadership of WillardVan Orman Quine, and by the
mid- 1960s the analytic tradition had become the dominant philosophi-
cal force in America. Other significant developments chronicled in the
essay include the troubled history of philosophy at Yale; the inspiring
success of the program at Wayne State; the rise of powerful depart-
ments at Michigan, Pittsburgh, and MIT; and the emergence of the