Analytic Philosophy Books - Page 2

Bertrand Russell

A. J. Ayer

Amazon Price: $29.00 List Price: $29.00 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $8.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Philosophers
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With extraordinary concision and clarity, A. J. Ayer gives an account of the major incidents of Bertrand Russell's life and an exposition of the whole range of his philosophy. "Ayer considers Russell to be, except possibly for Wittgenstein, the most influential philosopher of our time. In this book [he] gives a lucid account of Russell's philosophical achievements."—James Rachels, New York Times Book Review

"I am sure [this] is the best introduction of any length to Russell, and I suspect that it might serve as one of the best introductions to modern philosophy. . . . Ayer begins with a brief, austere, and balanced account of Russell's life: as in Russell's autobiography this means his thought, books, women, and politics. Tacitus (and Russell) would have found the account exemplary. Ayer ends with a sympathetic and surprisingly detailed survey of Russell's social philosophy. But the bulk of this book consists of a chapter on Russell's work in logic and the foundations of mathematics, followed by a chapter on his epistemological views and one on metaphysics. . . . I find it impossible to imagine that this book will not remain indefinitely the very best book of its sort."—Review of Metaphysics

"The confrontation or conjunction of Ayer and Russell is a notable event and has produced a remarkable book—brilliantly argued and written."—Martin Lebowitz, The Nation

A House Divided: Comparing Analytic and Continental Philosophy

Amazon Price: $24.41 List Price: $36.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Humanity Books Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $20.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A HOUSE DIVIDED examines cross-influences and similarities between pivotal thinkers in the analytic and Continental philosophical traditions. The various articles in this anthology establish that the two traditions have more in common than most think. Consideration of apparently unlikely but definite connections between Carnap and Nietzsche, Davidson and Gadamer, Quine and Heidegger, Searle and Foucault, and others, shows that, despite conventional wisdom and all-too-common mutual disparagement, contemporary philosophy does not divide neatly into two intellectual domains defined by incommensurable principles. The differences among these groupings of philosophers are more a matter of disparities among aggregates of university philosophy departments than a gulf between two fundamental perspectives, and the disparities are due more to selective reading, ingrained conversational styles, and scholarly inertia than to incompatible perspectives.

The undeniable differences in the ways analytic and Continental--or "European"-- philosophers talk, write, and conduct their classes are largely methodological and canonical, and should not preclude useful philosophical dialogue. The insightful articles collected here are not blueprints for closer cooperation between philosophers with different methods and objectives, but they clearly demonstrate that regardless of approach and precedents, analytic and Continental philosophers are all doing philosophy, and there are many important and potentially productive points of contact between them.

The contributors include Richard Rorty, Barry Allen, Babette E. Babich, David Cerbone, Sharyn Clough, Jonathan Kaplan, Richard Matthews, C. G. Prado, Bjorn Torgrim Ramberg, Mike Sandbothe, Barry Stocker, and Edward Witherspoon.

Contemporary Analytic Philosophy

James Baillie

List Price: $60.00 By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $7.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Movements -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Overpriced, but very good. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This single book serves as an excellent intro to analytic philosophy. In each of various area of analytic philosophy, it contains several of the seminal articles. In addition, each chapter contains a several page intro and discussion of the articles. I highly recommend the book.

I lowered the rating from 5 stars to 4 stars, because the book is priced about $20 too high.

Could be better 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The only conplaint I have with this book is that it lacks scholarship. This anthology does not contain an index.

Wonderful Small Anthology - Wildly Overpriced 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Contemporary Analytic Philosophy by James Bailie originally published in 1997 provides an overview of analytic philosophy from Frege to the present. It is a strong mix of key writings by leading thinkers in the analytic tradition as well as some clear and helpful analysis by Bailie. As with all these types of essay collections, it is advisable to look at the on-line table of comments, prior to purchasing. This excellent small anthology may be well suited to use in an introductory course on analytic philosophy.

I had recently read Scott Soames' excellent two-volume series on analytic philosophy and found it and the present work to be quite complementary. Soames' coverage is narrower and deeper - its one significant short-coming being the omission of Frege. Bailie's work is broader and shallower including classic pieces from each of the writers. A few of lesser figures were also included; e.g. Austin, Grice and Putnam, which was nice to see. Davidson is the only inclusion that I would question - I just don't see him as particularly significant - perhaps a limitation on my part.

Overall excellent work if wildly overpriced. I picked it up new at a book sale for $3; its probably worth at most $30.

Minding the Gap : Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Two Traditions

Christopher Norris

Amazon Price: $39.95 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Massachusetts Press Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $3.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology

Editorial Review:

In this sweeping volume, Christopher Norris challenges the view that there is no room for productive engagement between mainstream analytic philosophers and thinkers in the post-Kantian continental line of descent. On the contrary, he argues, this view is simply the product of a limiting perspective that accompanied the rise of logical positivism.

Norris reveals the various shared concerns that have often been obscured by parochial interests or the desire to stake out separate philosophical territory. He examines the problems that emerged within the analytic tradition as a result of its turn against Husserlian phenomenology and its outright rejection of what came to be seen as a merely "psycho-logistic" approach to issues of meaning, knowledge, and truth.

Norris shows how these problems have resurfaced in various forms from the heyday of logical empiricism to the present. He provides critical readings of such philosophers as Willard Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, Michael Dummett, Thomas Nagel, and John McDowell. He also offers a running discussion of Wittgenstein's influence and its harmful effect in promoting a placidly consensus-based theory of knowledge.

On the continental side, Norris argues for a reassessment of Husserl's phenomenological project and its potential contribution to present day Anglo-American debates in epistemology and philosophy of science. He discusses Bachelard, Canguilhem, and the French tradition of rationalisme appliqué as an alternative to Kuhnian conceptions of scientific paradigm change. This leads him to suggest a non-Wittgensteinian way around the problems that have dogged more traditional theories of knowledge and truth.

In two chapters on the work of Jacques Derrida, Norris explores the "supplementary" logic of deconstruction and compares it with other recent proposals for a nonstandard logic. Here again he stresses the community of interests between the two philosophical cultures and the extent to which continental thinking has engaged certain issues with a rigor largely ignored by Anglophone writers.

By bringing a fresh perspective to questions that have often been considered the exclusive preserve of analytic philosophy, Norris offers an overview of current debates that is at once refreshingly open-minded and sure of its own argumentative bearings.

Dear Carnap, Dear Van: The Quine-Carnap Correspondence and Related Work (Centennial Books)

W. V. Quine, Rudolf Carnap

Amazon Price: $65.00 List Price: $65.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of California Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $44.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Letters & Correspondence
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Rudolf Carnap and W. V. Quine, two of the twentieth century's most important philosophers, corresponded at lengthand over a long period of timeon matters personal, professional, and philosophical. Their friendship encompassed issues and disagreements that go to the heart of contemporary philosophic discussions. Carnap (1891-1970) was a founder and leader of the logical positivist school. The younger Quine (1908-) began as his staunch admirer but diverged from him increasingly over questions in the analysis of meaning and the justification of belief. That they remained close, relishing their differences through years of correspondence, shows their stature both as thinkers and as friends. The letters are presented here, in full, for the first time. The substantial introduction by Richard Creath offers a lively overview of Carnap's and Quine's careers and backgrounds, allowing the nonspecialist to see their writings in historical and intellectual perspective. Creath also provides a judicious analysis of the philosophical divide between them, showing how deep the issues cut into the discipline, and how to a large extent they remain unresolved. Dear Carnap, I enclose a copy of a paper which I am ready to send off for publication. . . . I am anxious to have you look this over as soon as possible, to see whether you have reason to suppose the system contradictory: for it looks dangerous. Dear Quine: I read your paper very carefully and with the highest interest. . . . So far, I do not see any contradiction in the system itself . . . but I share your feeling that the whole looks rather dangerous.

Analytic Philosophy: Beginnings to the Present

Jordan Lindberg

List Price: $68.75 By: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $1.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Movements -> General

Editorial Review:

This comprehensive anthology offers influential works of philosophy written in the last 125 years in Northern and Central Europe and in the United States - durable contributions that have shaped the contemporary philosophical landscape in English-speaking countries. Substantial yet readable selections represent leading American pragmatists, the early Cambridge analysts, members of the Vienna Circle, the so-called “ordinary language” philosophers, along with recent analytic and post-analytic philosophers.

Future Pasts: The Analytic Tradition in Twentieth-Century Philosophy

Amazon Price: $65.00 List Price: $65.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $12.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Editorial Review:

This collection of previously unpublished essays presents a new approach to the history of analytic philosophy--one that does not assume at the outset a general characterization of the distinguishing elements of the analytic tradition. Drawing together a venerable group of contributors, including John Rawls and Hilary Putnam, this volume explores the historical contexts in which analytic philosophers have worked, revealing multiple discontinuities and misunderstandings as well as a complex interaction between science and philosophical reflection.

The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat

Santiago Zabala

Amazon Price: $37.50 List Price: $37.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Columbia University Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $26.86

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Editorial Review:

Contemporary philosophers& mdash;analytic as well as continental& mdash;tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style. Tugendhat was one of Martin Heidegger's last pupils and his least obedient, pursuing a new and controversial critical technique. Tugendhat took Heidegger's destruction of Being as presence and developed it in analytic philosophy, more specifically in semantics. Only formal semantics, according to Tugendhat, could answer the questions left open by Heidegger.

Yet in doing this, Tugendhat discovered the latent "hermeneutic nature of analytic philosophy"& mdash;its post-metaphysical dimension& mdash;in which "there are no facts, but only true propositions." What Tugendhat seeks to answer is this: What is the meaning of thought following the linguistic turn? Because of the rift between analytic and continental philosophers, very few studies have been written on Tugendhat, and he has been omitted altogether from several histories of philosophy. Now that these two schools have begun to reconcile, Tugendhat has become an example of a philosopher who, in the words of Richard Rorty, "built bridges between continents and between centuries."

Tugendhat is known more for his philosophical turn than for his phenomenological studies or for his position within analytic philosophy, and this creates some confusion regarding his philosophical propensities. Is Tugendhat analytic or continental? Is he a follower of Wittgenstein or Heidegger? Does he belong in the culture of analysis or in that of tradition? Santiago Zabala presents Tugendhat as an example of merged horizons, promoting a philosophical historiography that is concerned more with dialogue and less with classification. In doing so, he places us squarely within a dialogic culture of the future and proves that any such labels impoverish philosophical research.

The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat

Santiago Zabala

Amazon Price: $37.50 List Price: $37.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Columbia University Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $26.86

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Analytic Philosophy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Editorial Review:

Contemporary philosophers& mdash;analytic as well as continental& mdash;tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style. Tugendhat was one of Martin Heidegger's last pupils and his least obedient, pursuing a new and controversial critical technique. Tugendhat took Heidegger's destruction of Being as presence and developed it in analytic philosophy, more specifically in semantics. Only formal semantics, according to Tugendhat, could answer the questions left open by Heidegger.

Yet in doing this, Tugendhat discovered the latent "hermeneutic nature of analytic philosophy"& mdash;its post-metaphysical dimension& mdash;in which "there are no facts, but only true propositions." What Tugendhat seeks to answer is this: What is the meaning of thought following the linguistic turn? Because of the rift between analytic and continental philosophers, very few studies have been written on Tugendhat, and he has been omitted altogether from several histories of philosophy. Now that these two schools have begun to reconcile, Tugendhat has become an example of a philosopher who, in the words of Richard Rorty, "built bridges between continents and between centuries."

Tugendhat is known more for his philosophical turn than for his phenomenological studies or for his position within analytic philosophy, and this creates some confusion regarding his philosophical propensities. Is Tugendhat analytic or continental? Is he a follower of Wittgenstein or Heidegger? Does he belong in the culture of analysis or in that of tradition? Santiago Zabala presents Tugendhat as an example of merged horizons, promoting a philosophical historiography that is concerned more with dialogue and less with classification. In doing so, he places us squarely within a dialogic culture of the future and proves that any such labels impoverish philosophical research.