Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Originating in the pioneering work of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the four decades around the turn of the twentieth century, analytic philosophy established itself in various forms in the 1930s. After the Second World War, it developed further in North America, in the rest of Europe, and is now growing in influence as the dominant philosophical tradition right across the world, from Latin America to East Asia.

In this Very Short Introduction Michael Beaney introduces some of the key ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy by exploring certain fundamental philosophical questions and showing how those ideas can be used in offering answers. Considering the work of Susan Stebbing, he also explores the application of analytic philosophy to critical thinking, and emphasizes the conceptual creativity that lies at the heart of fruitful analysis. Throughout, Beaney illustrates why clarity of thinking, precision of expression, and rigour of argumentation are rightly seen as virtues of analytic philosophy.

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"Analytic philosophy is now widely regarded as the dominant tradition in philosophy today. But what exactly is it? How did it arise, and what are its characteristic methods and concerns? What are its main strengths and weaknesses? In this [book], Michael Beaney discusses the nature and development of analytic philosophy by exploring key questions that reveal some of its central concerns, and illustrate some of the core ideas of its main founders"--Front cover flap.

What a great 'thought-thinking trip.' Beaney gives us a concise, excellent introduction to analytic philosophy, one that takes on the vexed question of saying what analytic philosophy is, and delivers a fine, historically tethered, answer. - Professor Cheryl Misak, University of Toronto

A concise, delightfully accessible, and intellectually stimulating introduction to philosophy in the analytic tradition, especially its formative phase. - Erich Reck, Professor, University of California at Riverside