UNIVERSITY
OF SOUTH FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
PHILOSOPHY
PHH
4600: CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY FALL
2003
Kwasi Wiredu
August
25, 2003
To
study the origins and contemporary concerns of analytic philosophy.
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Taken literally, “contemporary philosophy”
refers to philosophy in recent times in the entire world. That would mean
philosophy Eastern, Western, African etc. Of the Western, it would include
Anglo-American as well as “Continental” philosophy. Such proportions are
impracticable. In this course we shall limit ourselves to studying the origins
and contemporary concerns of philosophy in the Anglo-American world. In that
milieu philosophy has been mainly “analytic.” This type of philosophy is not
only one that does analysis, for all philosophy does analysis to some extent,
but also one that probes the nature of language itself in the belief that
insights will accrue thereby for the solution of philosophical problems. Even
in this respect, the differentiation between analytic and other kinds of
philosophy cannot be too rigid, as will be apparent below in relation to
idealism, pragmatism and the varieties of American realism.
BOOKS
(a) REQUIRED:
(1)
James Baillie, Contemporary Analytic Philosophy, Prentice Hall, 1997.
(2)
Milton K. Munitz, Contemporary Analytic Philosophy, New York: Macmillan
Publishing Co., 1981
OTHER USEFUL BOOKS:
(1) E.D. Klemke, ed., Contemporary Analytic
and Linguistic Philosophies, New York: Prometheus Books, 2nd
Edition, 2000.
(2) W. T Jones, A History of Western
Philosophy: Vol. V: The Twentieth Century to Wittgenstein and Sartre, (New
York: Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich, 1980).
(3) John Passmore, A Hundred Years of
Philosophy, (New York: Penguin Books, 2nd Edition, 1966).
(4) Larry Lee Blackman, Classics of
Analytical Metaphysics, New York: University Press of America, 1984.
(5) Morris Weitz, 20th Century Philosophy:
The Analytic Tradition, New York: The Free Press, 1966.
(6) Paul Moser and Dwayne Mulder, Contemporary
Approaches to Philosophy, New York; Macmillan, 1994
(7) Robert R. Ammerman, Classics of Analytic
Philosophy, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964
(8) Richard M. Rorty, ed., The Linguistic
Turn, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992
TOPICS AND READINGS
PART I
I. IDEALISM AND THE REVOLT AGAINST IT
1.
Josiah Royce, "Reality and Idealism"
in E.D. Klemke, ed., Contemporary Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies,
New York: Prometheus Books, 1983, chap. 1.
2.
C
3.
GE Moore, "The Refutation of
Idealism," in Klemke, ibid.
3. W.
T. Jones, A History of Western Philosophy, Valve, pp. 102-112.
4. A. J. Ayer, Philosophy in the
Twentieth Century, New York: Vintage Books, "The Refutation of
Idealism," pp. 55-59.
5. Paul Edwards, Encyclopedia of
Philosophy on Idealism, (H. B. Acton), American Philosophy (Paul Kurtz).
6. Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an
African Culture, chap. 9, "To Be is to Be Known," (Pointing out
an ambiguity in the principle of esse est percipi basic to all idealism)
Historical Background:
a.
John
Passmore, A Hundred Years of Philosophy, chap. 3: "Towards the
Absolute"; chap. 4: "Personality and the Absolute" (especially
the latter).
b.
Frederick
Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. viii, Part ii: "The
Idealist Movement in Great Britain"; part iii: "Idealism in
America" (especially chap. xxi: "The Philosophy of Royce").
c.
Morton
White, The Age of Analysis, chap. 1: "The Decline and Fall of the
Absolute."
II. AMERICAN REALISM
1.
E. B. Holt et
al. al., "The Program and Platform of Six Realists" in Klemke, Contemporary
Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies, chap. 4.
2.
Durant Drake, "The Approach to Critical
Realism" in Klemke, ibid., chap. 5.
3.
Paul Edwards Encyclopedia of Philosophy
on Realism (R. J. Hirst).
4.
John Dewey, "The Existence of the World as
a Logical Problem" in Essays in Experimental Logic, (a critique of
sensationalistic assumptions common to both the "new" and
"critical" realists and others, especially, Bertrand Russell).
Historical Background:
a.
John Passmore, A Hundred Years of Philosophy,
chap. 11: "The New Realists"; chap. 12: "Critical Realism and
American Naturalism."
b.
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy,
vol. Viii, Part v: "The Revolt Against Idealism" (especially chap.
xvii: "Realism in Britain and America," chap. xviii: "GE Moore
and Analysis" and chap. xix: "Bertrand Russell."
c. W. T. Jones, A History of Western
Philosophy, Chap. 3: "Moore and the Revival of Realism, “especially,
pp. 107-115.
III. PRAGMATISM
1.
John Dewey, "The Development of American
Pragmatism" in Pragmatism: The Classic Writings, edited by H.S.
Thayer, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1982, pp. 11-23. Also in Moser
and Mulder, Contemporary Approaches to Philosophy.
2.
Charles Sanders Peirce, "The Fixation of
Belief," "How to Make Our Ideas Clear," "What Pragmatism
Is" in Thayer, ibid (see also editor's Introduction, pp. 11-22, pp.
43-47). Also, for more clarifications of pragmatism by Peirce, see pp. 48-60
where he introduces the term "Pragmaticism." There are also adequate
reprints of Peirce in Contemporary Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies,
in Klemke, chap. 2: "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" and chap. 3:
"Pragmaticism."
3.
William James, "What Pragmatism
Means," "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth," "The Tigers of
India," "The Meaning of the Word `Truth'," in Thayer, ibid.
Chaps. ix, x, xi, xii. (See also editor's Introduction pp. 123-130 and an
interview statement on Pragmatism by William James on pp. 131-134).
4.
John Dewey, "What Pragmatism Means by
Practical," in Essays in Experimental Logic. (See also editor's
Introduction to the selections from Dewey in Thayer, op. cit. pp. 253-261). See
also Moser and Mulder, Contemporary Approaches to Philosophy, for Dewey,
"The Development of American Pragmatism"; James "What Pragmatism
Means,” Peirce, "What Pragmatism Is" and Lewis, "the Proper
Method of Philosophy.”
5.
C. I. Lewis, "A Pragmatic Conception of
the A Priori" in Thayer, op. cit. (See also editor's introduction pp.
361-363).
6.
A. J. Ayer, Philosophy in the Twentieth
Century, chap. iii, pp. 69-83 on William James and pp. 83-107 on C. I.
Lewis.
7.
Milton K. Munitz, Contemporary Analytic
Philosophy, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1981, chap. ii,
"Belief, Inquiry, and Meaning" (mainly on Peirce with briefer
discussions of James and Dewey).
8.
Paul Edwards' Encyclopedia of Philosophy
on Pragmatism (H.S. Thayer), Pierce (Murray G. Murphey); James (William James
Earle), Dewey (Richard Bernstein), Pragmatic Theory of Truth (Gertrude
Ezorsky), C. I. Lewis (E.M. Adams).
9.
Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African
Culture, chap. 10, section iii: "The Theory of Truth" (especially
pages 157-161 on the pragmatic and coherence theories of truth).
Historical Background:
a.
John Passmore, A Hundred Years of Philosophy,
chap. 5: "Pragmatism and its European Analogues."
b.
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy,
vol. viii, Part IV: "The Pragmatic Movement."
c. H.S. Thayer, Meaning and Action: A
Critical History of Pragmatism, part ii: "American Pragmatism"
(especially chap. 1: "Charles Sanders Peirce"; chap. 2 "William
James"; chap. 3: "John Dewey."
d. W. T. Jones, A History of Western
Philosophy, pp. 34-64: "Dewey".
Comparison of Pragmatism with Logical Positivism:
a. William P. Alston, "Pragmatism and
the Verifiability Theory of Meaning," Philosophical Review, vol.
VI, no. 5, Oct. 1955.
b. Charles
W. Morris, "The Concept of Meaning in Pragmatism and Logical
Positivism" in his Logical Empiricism, Pragmatism and Scientific
Empiricism (AMS Press, reprint of 1937 edition).
IV. WHAT IS ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY?
1.
Brief
Expository Characterizations:
Milton K. Munitz, Contemporary
Analytic Philosophy, chap. 1.
a.
E.D. Klemke, Contemporary Analytic and
Linguistic Philosophies, general introduction pp. 15-20: "The Rise of
Analytic Philosophy"; introduction to part 2: "Analytic and
Linguistic Philosophies," pp. 111-119.
b.
Samuel Enoch Stumpf, Philosophy: History and
Problems, 4th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1989, chap. 24:
"Analytic Philosophy," (same material available in the same author's Socrates
to Sartre, chap. 24.)
c.
Morris Weitz, 20th Century Philosophy: The
Analytic Tradition, general introduction, pp. 1-11. See also his article
“Analysis, Philosophical” in Paul Edwards, ed., the Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
e. W.
T. Jones, A History of Western Philosophy: the Twentieth Century to
Wittgenstein and Sartre, pp.88-93.
1.
More
Detailed Expository and Critical
Characterizations:
a.
Anthony Quinton, "Contemporary British
Philosophy" in D.J. O'Connor, ed., A Critical History of Western
Philosophy, New York: The Free Press, 1964. See also his article on
“British Philosophy” in Paul Edwards’ Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
pp.395-396.
b.
Ernest Nagel, Logic Without Metaphysics,
Part I, chap. 9: "Impressions and Appraisals of Analytic Philosophy in
Europe."
c. Blanshard,
Reason and Analysis
d. Ernest Gellner, Words
and Things, Boston: Beacon Press Hill, 1959, Chapter 1: "Of Linguistic
Philosophy"
e. P. F. Strawson, Analysis
and Metaphysics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, "Analytic
Philosophy: Two Analogies".
f. Richard Rorty, Consequences
of Pragmatism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982,
Introduction: "Pragmatism and Philosophy" and chapter 12:
"Philosophy in America Today." (Note: The first of these two articles
is also in Moser and Mulder, Contemporary Approaches to Philosophy
1.
Detailed
Statements of Advocacy:
a.
Bertrand Russell, A History of Western
Philosophy, chap. xxxi: "The Philosophy of Logical Analysis"
reprinted in Morton White, The Age of Analysis, pp. 194-203.
b.
GE Moore, "A Defense of Common Sense"
in E.D. Klemke, Contemporary Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies.
c.
Gilbert Ryle, "Systematically Misleading
Expressions" in Klemke, ibid.
d.
Rudolf Carnap, "The Rejection of
Metaphysics" in Morris Weitz, 20th Century Philosophy: The Analytic
Tradition. Reprinted in Morton White, The Age of Analysis, pp. 209-225.
e.
Gustav Bergman, "Logical Positivism,
Language, and Linguistic Philosophies." in Klemke, op. cit.
f.
John Wisdom, Philosophical Perplexity in
Klemke, ibid.
V. FREGE
His distinction between Concept and Object and
his elucidation of the concept of existence; Application of the latter to the
ontological argument for the existence of God.
His distinction between Sense and Reference;
Relevance of this distinction to the contemporary theory of the identity of mental
and brain processes.
Concept and Object:
1. Baillie,
1997, pp.1-6.
2.
Gottlob Frege, “Concept and Object” in Peter
Geach and Max Black, eds., Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege,
Oxford: Basil Blackwell, reprinted in Larry Lee Blackman, Classics of
Analytical Metaphysics, New York: University of America Press, 1984, and in
Herbert Feigl, Wilfrid Sellars, and Keith Lehrer, New Readings in
Philosophical Analysis, New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972.
3.
Milton K. Munitz, Contemporary Analytic
Philosophy, chap. iii, pp. 67-80 (on Frege generally), pp. 82-104
(specifically on Frege on Concept and Object).
1. See Munitz above. Also Anselm, Gaunilo,
Kant, Hartshorne in John Hick and A. C. McGill, Eds. The Many Faced Argument
2. John Hick, “Ontological Argument for
the existence of God” in Paul Edwards, ed., The
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Sense and Reference:
1.
Gottlob Frege, "On Sense and Meaning"
in Geach and Black, ibid, reprinted in Blackman Classics of Analytical
Metaphysics and also in Herbert Feigl and Wilfrid Sellars, Readings in
Philosophical Analysis, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949 or in
Baillie, 1997, p.23ff.
2.
Milton K. Munitz, ibid,. Chap. iii, pp.
105-118.
3.
Paul Edwards, Encyclopedia of Philosophy
on Frege (Dummett): Referring (Leonard Linsky): Proper Names and Descriptions
(John Searle).
4.
J. J. C. Smart, "Sensations and Brian
Processes" in V.C. Chappel, ed., The Philosophy of Mind, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1962 and reprinted in countless other
anthologies. (Note the relevance of the sense and reference distinction to the
Identity theory.)
5.
Saul Kripke, "Identity and Necessity"
in Baillie 1997 or Milton Munitz, Identity and Individuation, New York:
New York University Press, 1971, 1980. Also reprinted in Stephen P. Schwartz, Naming,
Necessity, and Natural Kinds, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977 and in
Ted Honderich and Myles Burnyeat, Philosophy As It Is, New York: Viking
Penguin Inc., 1979. (Note, particularly, Burnyeat's explanatory introduction to
Kripke's discussion.)
Historical Background:
a.
John Passmore, A Hundred Years of Philosophy, chap. 6: "New
Developments in Logic," esp. pp. 147-155.
b.
W. T. Jones, A history of Western Philosophy: The Twentieth century to
Wittgenstein and Sartre, chapter 4: "Frege and the Revolution in
Logic".
c.
Rudolf Carnap, "The Old and the New Logic" in A. J. Ayer, ed., Logical
Positivism.
VI RUSSELL
Logical Atomism; The Theory of Descriptions and
Other Types of Analysis; Comparison of Russell and Frege on Reference; and
Strawson's Critique of Russell's Theory of Descriptions and Russell's
rejoinder.
1.
Baillie, 1997, pp. 41- 71 Or Bertrand Russell,
"Facts and Propositions," "Particulars, Predicates, and
Relations," "Excursions into Metaphysics" in E.D. Klemke, Contemporary
Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies, chap. 10-12.
2.
Milton K. Munitz, Contemporary Analytic
Philosophy, chap. 4.
3.
J. O. Urmson, Philosophical Analysis,
New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 22-27 (on the theory of descriptions);
pp. 27-44 (other types of analysis); chap. 9 (criticisms of logical atomism).
4.
Bertrand Russell, "On Denoting," in Mind,
Vol. xiv, Oct. 1905, reprinted in H. Feigl and W. Sellars, Readings in
Philosophical Analysis, New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts; or Blackman Classics
of Analytical Metaphysics, or Robert Marsh, ed., Bertrand Russell: Logic
and Knowledge, London, 1956.
5.
A. J. Ayer, Philosophy in the Twentieth
Century, chap 2, pp. 19-40: "Bertrand Russell."
6.
Paul Edwards, Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
on Russell (jointly by Paul Edwards, William P. Alston, and A.N. Prior);
Referring (Leonard Linsky); Proper Names and Descriptions (John Searle);
Analysis, Philosophical (Morris Weitz).
7.