Early Analytic Philosophy - New Perspectives on the Tradition

The present volume is a collection of papers that focus on discussing (g)old ideas mainly originating in the works of some of the central figures who initiated the analytic tradition: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Rudolf Carnap. The central point of the book is to show how these ideas remain present and influential in current philosophical debates.

What we have inherited from the analytic tradition can be comparable to the nuggets of legacy contained in the unpublished works Frege left behind him, about which Frege told his son Alfred: "Even if they are not pure gold, there is gold in them."

The collection fulfills the need to better understand these ideas by placing them in their original setting, and systematically examines how these ideas might illuminate debates that animates current philosophical discussion. The authors approach some crucial ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy with a keen interest in showing how much contemporary philosophy is indebted to its original setting; they also examine the extent to which current debates echo the 'original' ones.

The collection is designed to be a useful tool for those who recognize the fruitfulness of (g)old thoughts, and their significant influence in current philosophical disputes.

Résumé
This volume discusses some crucial ideas of the founders of the analytic philosophy: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, or the 'golden trio'. The book shows how these 'old' ideas are still present and influential in the current philosophical debates and to what extent these debates echo the original ideas. The collection aim is twofold: to better understand these fruitful ideas by placing them in the original setting, and to systematically examine these ideas in the context of the current debates animating philosophical discussions today. Divided into five sections, the book first sets the stage and offers a general introduction to the background influences, as well as delimitations of the initial foundational positions. This first section contains two papers dedicated to the discussion of realism and the status of science at that time, followed by two papers that tackle the epistemic status of logical laws. The next three sections constitute the core of the volume, each being dedicated to the most important figures in the early analytic tradition: Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein. The last section gathers several essays that discuss either the relation between two or more analytic thinkers, or various important concepts such as 'predicativism' and 'arbitrary function', or the principles of abstraction and non-contradiction.

Contenu

Part I. Frege.- Part II. Russell.- Part III. Wittgenstein.- Part IV. Carnap.- Part V. Various echoes.