phil 230: early analytic philosophy

PHIL230

Early Analytic Philosophy

Tom Ryckman

 

Brian Leiter, the “philosophical gourmet,” notes: “All the Ivy League universities, all the leading state research universities, [and] most of the top liberal arts colleges boast philosophy departments that overwhelmingly self-identify as “analytic”: it is hard to imagine a “movement” that is more academically and professionally entrenched than analytic philosophy.” This course examines some the most significant works of philosophers at the vanguard of this movement.

Texts:

1.         Works on reserve in the library.

2.         Online versions of Moore’s “The Refutation of Idealism”, and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus.

3.         Principia Ethica, by G.E. Moore.

4.         The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell. ISBN13: 9780195115529

5.         The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, by Bertrand Russell.

6.         The Philosopher’s Dictionary, by Robert Martin.

 

Requirements:

Two necessary, though not jointly sufficient, conditions for passing the course are:

(i)           taking the mid-term and the final,

and

(ii)          taking four out of five pop-quizzes.

 

Grade:

Of the 100 (possible) points, 40 are from the mid-term, 40 are from the final, and 20 are from the pop-quizzes.

 

Main Topics:

  1. British Idealism (only very briefly reviewed)
  2. The Revolt against Idealism
  3. Moore’s Ethics
  4. Russell’s Theory of Descriptions, Theory of Proper Names, and Logical Atomism
  5. Wittgenstein’s Logical Atomism

 

Readings:

  1. Blanshard’s “Bradley on Relations.” (Critical examination of the arguments Bradley employed in support of Idealism.)
  2. Moore’s “The Refutation of Idealism.” (Moore’s critique of a proposition he regards as essential to Idealism.)
  3. Cartwright’s “A Neglected Theory of Truth.” (The first theory of truth adopted subsequent to the rejection of Idealism)
  4. Moore’s Principia Ethica. (Moore’s metaethics. Contains his discussion of the Naturalistic Fallacy and his Open Question Argument.)
  5. Russell’s “On Denoting.” (Russell’s attempt “solution” to the problem of the circle of our own ideas.)
  6. Russell’s Problems. (A systematic metaphysics and epistemology.)
  7. Russell’s Logical Atomism. (An analytic metaphysics)
  8. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. (Another analytic metaphysics.)