|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
RECENT PHILOSOPHY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select: Ludwig Wittgenstein - John Wisdom - Max Black G.E. Moore - Willard Van Orman Quine |
|
|
SOME MAJOR PHILOSOPHERS (Continued) Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Ludwig Wittgenstein (picture) was one of the most original and influential philosophers of the 20th century. Born into a wealthy and cultured Austrian family, Wittgenstein received most of his early education at home before studying engineering. Having become interested in the foundations of mathematics, Wittgenstein began to study with Bertrand Russell at Cambridge in 1912. His early work led to the writing of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). Having given away a large inheritance, Wittgenstein taught elementary school from 1920 to 1926 in rural Austria and subsequently served as gardener in a monastery near Vienna. In 1929, Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge, and in 1939 he was appointed to the chair in philosophy formerly held by G. E. Moore. Wittgenstein wrote continually, and lecture notes, as well as dictated manuscripts, circulated widely, although often against his wishes. The most important of these dictations have been published as The Blue and Brown Books: Preliminary Studies for the "Philosophical Investigations" (2d ed., 1969). After his death Wittgenstein's executors published the most important of his later writings, the Philosophical Investigations (1953), and almost a dozen other volumes. Highlights of His Early Philosophy:
For Wittgenstein, therefore, the traditional problems of philosophy are not solved, but rather dissolved, because they arise from a failure to understand the picturing relations; consequently, the problems ask for answers to questions that are nonsensical. Once the nature of meaning is grasped, the problems cease to exist. This view of philosophy and its problems was influential from the start. His conclusions seemed to provide a method whereby many philosophical theories -- notably those related to metaphysics and most of ethics -- could be discarded as nonsense. Highlights of His Later Philosophy:
With his insights on language and meaning, Wittgenstein shed new light on a variety of problems, notably skepticism and the problem of other minds. His work, however, has been extended by other thinkers into all areas of philosophy. Among many important philosophers who developed and extended his views are Norman Malcolm, John Wisdom, and Stanley Cavell. In The Radical Academy
John Wisdom was one of the leading philosophers of the analytic school that developed in England in the 1920s. Educated at Cambridge University, Wisdom was influenced by Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore. He received his B.A. in 1924 and taught at Saint Andrews University in Scotland until returning to Cambridge in 1934 as a fellow of Trinity College. At that time Wisdom became associated with Ludwig Wittgenstein, who had a permanent and profound effect on his thinking. Wisdom's work of the early 1930s, of which the series of articles "Logical Constructions" (published in Mind, 1931-33) is representative, falls clearly into the mold established by Moore. With the paper "Philosophical Perplexity" (1936), however, Wisdom began to evolve a critique of philosophical method derived from Wittgenstein. This view of philosophy in terms of engaging in discourse rather than putting forward theories has been influential in many areas of contemporary philosophy. Wisdom, however, has had the greatest influence in the philosophy of religion, primarily through his article "Gods" (1945). His many important papers have been collected in
Max Black was a Russian-born American analytic and linguistic philosopher. After studying and teaching in England, he went (1940) to the United States. He taught first at the University of Illinois (1940-46) and then at Cornell. Black's wide-ranging philosophical writings reveal a commitment to the clarification of meaning. Following Ludwig Wittgenstein, Black urges close attention to the multiplicity of ordinary uses of words and denies that language is a mirror of reality. His philosophical writings include
Highly influential in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy, George Edward Moore (picture) was a British philosopher whose methods helped form the basis of analytic and linguistic philosophy. Educated at Dulwich College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he later held posts as a lecturer and as professor of philosophy at Cambridge, where he taught for most of his life. From 1940 to 1944 he lectured at a number of colleges and universities in the United States. From 1921 until 1947 he was the editor of Mind, an outstanding British philosophical periodical. He had a reputation as an exciting teacher, a brilliant critic, and a charming person. Moore's early philosophy was marked by shifting viewpoints and showed the strong influence of F. H. Bradley and Immanuel Kant. Moore took the lead in rebelling against absolute idealism, the prevailing philosophical movement at the turn of the century. In one of his first major works, "The Refutation of Idealism" (1903), he tried to show that every argument on behalf of idealism contained a crucial premise that, under all interpretations, was either false or self-contradictory. The philosophical position that Moore defended was realism, and he was a realist in almost all senses of the term. He also, in various works, placed an emphasis on common sense. In one of his most famous essays, "A Defense of Common Sense" (1925), he argued for the superiority of common-sense beliefs. Using this approach, along with a meticulous analysis of concepts, he claimed to prove, or at least know, with certainty, many things which some philosophers had held to be unknown, or doubtful, or at best probable -- for example, the existence of an external world of material objects. Although much of Moore's work dealt with problems of epistemology and philosophical method, he also wrote two books (and many articles) on ethics.
With Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Moore exerted a seminal influence on 20th-century British and American philosophy. In The Radical Academy
Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher and logician. He was educated at Oberlin College and Harvard University and has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1936. His work is mainly in symbolic logic and the logic of ordinary language, although he also writes in the field of ontology. Quine was influenced by such positivists as Rudolf Carnap, but his denial of the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements marks a major deviation from positivism, as does his view on the logical status of the problem of what exists. The pragmatism of Clarence Irving Lewis is evident in Quine's view that logic and language evolve as tools of inquiry. His books include:
Positive contributions of the Logical Positivists to the Perennial Philosophy. None. Positivism in any form is antithetical to a genuine realist philosophy. Logical positivism is opposed to metaphysics in any form. Logical positivism does not have the influence it once had. Positive contributions of the Analytic Movement to the Perennial Philosophy. Very little, if any. However, the philosophers in the analytic movement did point out the importance of language in philosophical discourse and Wittgenstein did some interesting work, especially regarding his concept of "language games," which should be read by classical realists.
Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book...
|
|
|
Introduction & Directory |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
[Homepage] [Newsletter] [Search] [Support the Academy] [Link to Us] [Contact the Academy] [Citing Articles from Our Website] [Privacy Policy & Disclaimer]
Copyright 1998-99, 2000-01, & 2002-03 by The Radical Academy. All Rights Reserved.
This Page Was Updated On