Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy

315 Pages·2000·1.05 MB·English

by  Avrum Stroll

Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy
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Twentieth-Century
A N A LY T I C P H I L O S O P H Y
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Avrum Stroll
C
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2000 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stroll, Avrum, 1921–
Twentieth-century analytic philosophy / Avrum Stroll.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–231–11220–3 (alk. paper)
1. Analysis (Philosophy)—History. I. Title.
B808.5 .S77 2000
146’.4’0904—dc21 99–087366
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Mary

Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments ix
one The Solera System 1
two Philosophical Logic 11
three Logical Positivism and the Tractatus 45
four G. E. Moore: A Ton of Bricks 87
five Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy: “The Stream of Life” 113
six Ryle and Austin: The Golden Age of Oxford Philosophy 146
seven W. V. O. Quine 181
eight Direct Reference Theories 211
nine Today and Tomorrow 246
References 271
Index 281

Acknowledgments
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Given the span of more than a hundred years that this study covers, and
the complexity of much of the material, I would have found it impossible
to write this book without abundant expert assistance. I therefore wish to
thank Zeno Vendler, Robert Rowan, Henry Alexander, Pieranna Garavaso,
A. P. Martinich, and John Collins for their invaluable comments. Each of
them read the entire manuscript and, mirabile dictu, presented me with
written criticisms, as well as detailed recommendations for improvement.
My appreciation for the labor they expended is boundless. I also owe a debt
of gratitude to the editor of the Journal of Philosophy, who allowed me to
include in this work part of an essay, “Proper Names, Names, and Fictive
Objects,” that I published in the Journalin 1998. I owe a similar debt to an
editor at MIT Press for permission to use part of a chapter from my
Sketches of Landscapes: Philosophy by Example (1998). These materials
appear in the last sections of chapter 8. With those exceptions, the book
contains only new writings.
I wrote much of the manuscript during two stays at the American Acad-
emy in Rome, and without the hospitality and generosity of the then direc-
tor, Caroline Bruzelius, and the assistant director, Pina Pasquantonio, it
would have taken me much longer to complete this work. Finally, no
expression of thanks will do justice to the acute observations on the text
made by my wife, Mary. Her careful reading of the manuscript greatly
improved its style, organization, level of argument, and content. That she
took so much time away from her own current research on twelfth-century
papal politics is indeed an act of supererogation. For her help, and, of
course, for other reasons, I dedicate this book to her.