A Companion to Analytic Philosophy

A Companion to Analytic Philosophy Blackwell Companions to Philosophy This outstanding student reference series offers a comprehensive and authoritative survey of philosophy as a whole. Written by today’s leading philosophers, each volume provides lucid and engaging coverage of the key figures, terms, topics, and problems of the field. Taken together, the volumes provide the ideal basis for course use, representing an unparalleled work of reference for students and specialists alike. Already published in the series 15. A Companion to Bioethics Edited by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer 1. The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy Edited by Nicholas Bunnin and Eric Tsui-James 16. A Companion to the Philosophers Edited by Robert L. Arrington 2. A Companion to Ethics 17. A Companion to Business Ethics Edited by Peter Singer Edited by Robert E. Frederick 3. A Companion to Aesthetics Edited by David Cooper 18. A Companion to the Philosophy of Science 4. A Companion to Epistemology Edited by W . H . Newton-Smith Edited by Jonathan Dancy and Ernest Sosa 5. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy 19. A Companion to Environmental Philosophy <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Edited by Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit </li><li style="flex:1">Edited by Dale Jamieson </li></ul>6. A Companion to Philosophy of Mind 20. A Companion to Analytic Philosophy Edited by Samuel Guttenplan Edited by A. P . M artinich and David Sosa 7. A Companion to Metaphysics Edited by Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa Forthcoming 8. A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory A Companion to Genethics Edited by John Harris and Justine Burley Edited by Dennis Patterson A Companion to African-American Philosophy Edited by Tommy Lott and John Pittman 9. A Companion to Philosophy of Religion Edited by Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro 10. A Companion to the Philosophy of Language A Companion to African Philosophy Edited by Kwasi Wiredu Edited by Bob Hale and Crispin Wright A Companion to Ancient Philosophy Edited by Mary Louise Gill 11. A Companion to World Philosophies Edited by Eliot Deutsch and Ron Bontekoe 12. A Companion to Continental Philosophy Edited by Simon Critchley and William Schroeder A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy Edited by Steven Nadler 13. A Companion to Feminist Philosophy Edited by Alison M. Jaggar and Iris Marion Y o ung A Companion to Philosophical Logic Edited by Dale Jacquette 14. A Companion to Cognitive Science Edited by William Bechtel and George Graham A Companion to Medieval Philosophy Edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia, Greg Reichberg, and Timothy Noone Blackwell Companions to Philosophy A Companion to Analytic Philosophy Edited by A. P. MARTINICH and DAVID SOSA Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001 First published 2001 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Blackwell Publishers Inc. 350 Main Street Malden, Massachusetts 02148 USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 1JF UK All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A companion to analytic philosophy / edited by A. P. Martinich and David Sosa. p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-21415-1 (hb : alk. paper) 1. Analysis (Philosophy) 2. Philosophy, Modern – 19th century. 3. Philosophy, Modern – 20th century. I. Martinich, Aloysius. II. Sosa, David, 1966– III. Series. B808.5 .C555 2001 146¢.4 – dc21 00-050770 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10 on 12.5 pt Photina by Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents List of Contributors viii 1Introduction A. P. MARTINICH 123456789 Gottlob Frege (1848–1925) MICHAEL DUMMETT 6 21 Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) THOMAS BALDWIN G. E. Moore (1873–1958) ERNEST SOSA 45 C. D. Broad (1887–1971) JAMES VAN CLEVE 57 Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) P. M. S. HACKER 68 Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) SAHOTRA SARKAR 94 Karl Popper (1892–1994) W. H. NEWTON-SMITH 110 117 Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976) AVRUM STROLL Alfred Tarski (1902–1983), Alonzo Church (1903–1995), and Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) C. ANTHONY ANDERSON 124 139 148 v10 Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930) BRAD ARMENDT 11 Carl G. Hempel (1905–1997) PHILIP KITCHER CONTENTS 12 Nelson Goodman (1906–1998) 160 169 175 181 205 218 231 239 254 274 281 296 315 326 334 350 357 361 ISRAEL SCHEFFLER 13 H. L. A. Hart (1907–1992) SCOTT SHAPIRO 14 Charles Stevenson (1908–1979) JAMES DREIER 15 W. V. Quine (1908–2000) PETER HYLTON 16 A. J. Ayer (1910–1989) T. L. S. SPRIGGE 17 J. L. Austin (1911–1960) JOHN R. SEARLE 18 Norman Malcolm (1911–1990) CARL GINET 19 Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989) JAY F. ROSENBERG 20 H. P. Grice (1913–1988) STEPHEN NEALE 21 G. H. von Wright (1916– ) FREDERICK STOUTLAND 22 Roderick Chisholm (1916–1999) RICHARD FOLEY AND DEAN ZIMMERMAN 23 Donald Davidson (1917– ) ERNEST LEPORE 24 G. E. M. Anscombe (1919–2001) ANSELM MÜLLER 25 R. M. Hare (1919– ) WALTER SINNOTT-ARMSTRONG 26 P. F. Strawson (1919– ) P. F. SNOWDON 27 Philippa Foot (1920– ) GAVIN LAWRENCE 28 Ruth Barcan Marcus (1921– ) MAX CRESSWELL 29 John Rawls (1921– ) NORMAN DANIELS vi CONTENTS 30 Thomas S. Kuhn (1922–1996) 371 RICHARD GRANDY 31 Michael Dummett (1925– ) 378 393 413 419 428 434 451 466 478 489 ALEXANDER MILLER 32 Hilary Putnam (1926– ) JOHN HEIL 33 David M. Armstong (1926– ) FRANK JACKSON 34 Noam Chomsky (1928– ) PETER LUDLOW 35 Richard Rorty (1931– ) MICHAEL WILLIAMS 36 John R. Searle (1932– ) A. P. MARTINICH 37 Jerry Fodor (1935– ) GEORGES REY 38 Saul Kripke (1940– ) DAVID SOSA 39 David Lewis (1941– ) ROBERT STALNAKER Index vii Contributors C. Anthony Anderson Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara Brad Armendt Associate Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University Thomas Baldwin Professor of Philosophy, University of Y o rk, England Max Cresswell Professor of Philosophy, Victoria University of W e llington, New Zealand Norman Daniels Professor of Philosophy and Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric, Tufts University James Dreier Associate Professor of Philosophy, Brown University Sir Michael Dummett Wykeham Professor of Logic Emeritus, University of Oxford Richard Foley Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, New Y o rk University Carl Ginet Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Cornell University Richard Grandy Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Philosophy, Rice University P. M. S. Hacker Fellow of St. John’s College, University of Oxford John Heil Professor of Philosophy, Davidson College Peter Hylton Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois, Chicago viii CONTRIBUTORS Frank Jackson Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy Program, Research School of Social Sciences, and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University Philip Kitcher Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University Gavin Lawrence Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles Ernest LePore Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University Peter Ludlow Professor of Philosophy, State University of New Y o rk, Stony Brook A. P. Martinich Roy Allison V a ughan Centennial Professor of Philosophy, Professor of History, University of Texas, Austin Alexander Miller Senior Research Fellow, Cardiff University Anselm Winfried Müller Professor of Philosophy, University of Trie r , G ermany Stephen Neale Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University W. H. Newton-Smith Fairfax Fellow, Jowett Fellow, Jowett Lecturer and Tutor in Philosophy, Balliol College, University of Oxford Georges Rey Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park Jay F. Rosenberg Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Sahotra Sarkar Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin Israel Scheffler Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Professor Emeritus and Directo r , P hilosophy of Education Research Cente r , G raduate School of Education, Harvard University John R. Searle Mills Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley Scott Shapiro Assistant Professor of Law, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, Y e shiva University Walter Sinnott-Armstrong Professor of Philosophy, Dartmouth College ix CONTRIBUTORS P. F. Snowdon Lecturer in Philosophy and Fellow, Exeter College, University of Oxford David Sosa Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin Ernest Sosa Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Theology, Brown University, and Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University T. L. S. Sprigge Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh Robert Stalnaker Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Frederick Stoutland Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, St. Olaf College, and Permanent Visiting Professo r , University of Uppsala Avrum Stroll Research Professo r , U niversity of California, San Diego James van Cleve Professor of Philosophy, Brown University Michael Williams Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University Dean Zimmerman Associate Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University xBlackwell Companions to Philosophy: A Companion to Analytic Philosophy Edited by A. P. Martinich, David Sosa Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001 Introduction A. P. MARTINICH Though analytic philosophy was practiced by Plato and reinvigorated in the modern era by René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes among others, we are concerned with it only in its twentieth-century forms. As such, it was revived in two centers, Germany and England. In Germany, Gottlob Frege was exploring the foundations of mathematics and logic. His efforts introduced new standards of rigor that made their way into analytic philosophy generally, through the work of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. His discussions of the nature of language and reasoning have also become powerful tools in the hands of later philosophers. Among Frege’s many books and articles, the Grundgesetze, Begriffsschrift, “On Sense and Reference” (“Über Sinn und Bedeutung,” 1892) and “Thoughts” (“Gedanken,” 1918) stand out as especially significant. During about the same period in England, G. E. Moore led the way in opposing the then-dominant philosophy of British idealism. While “The Nature of Judgment” is an early criticism of a point in F. H. Bradley’s Logic, the locus classicus of British analytic philosophy is likely “The Refutation of Idealism” (1903), a criticism of the formula esse est percipi (“to be is to be perceived”). A crucial part of that argument is Moore’s claim that the concept of the sensation of yellow contains two parts: the sensation that is unique to each person and the yellowness that can be perceived by many people. Even when idealists conceded that there was some kind of duality here, they insisted on a kind of inseparability. To use a general name for the kind of analytic philosophy practiced during the first half of the twentieth century, initially in Great Britain and German-speaking countries, and later in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, “conceptual analysis” aims at breaking down complex concepts into their simpler components. Successive analyses performed on complex concepts would yield simpler concepts. According to Moore, the process might lead ultimately to simple concepts, of which no further analysis could be given. The designation “conceptual” was supposed to distinguish the philosophical activity from various analyses applied to nonconceptual objects. Physics was famous in the twentieth century for breaking down atoms into protons, neutrons, and electrons, and these subatomic particles into an array of more exotic components. And analytic chemistry aims at determining chemical compositions. The analogy between philosophy and science inspired the name “logical atomism,” a theory that flourished between 1A. P. MARTINICH 1920 and 1930. Both Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell maintained that there must be simple, unanalyzable objects at the fundamental level of reality. Wittgenstein thought that the simples existed independently of human experience, Russell that they existed only for as long as one’s attention was fixed on them. Notwithstanding the analogy between scientific and philosophical analysis, most philosophers in the first half of the twentieth century maintained that philosophy was very different from science. In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), Wittgenstein wrote: “Philosophy is not one of the natural sciences. (The word ‘philosophy’ must mean something whose place is above or below the natural sciences, not beside them.)” (4.111). This conveniently left open which was superior. But if there is anything constant in analytic philosophy, it is change, and the opposite view of the relation between science and philosophy has dominated the second half of the century. Largely owing to the influence of W. V. Quine, many philosophers have come to believe that philosophy is continuous with science. Yesterday’s heresy is today’s orthodoxy. Whichever view is correct, the division between the philosophical analysis of concepts and the nonphilosophical scientific analysis of nonconceptual objects should perhaps not be taken too strictly. Concepts and hence philosophy would be of no use if they did not make contact with the nonconceptual world. In addition, science uses concepts, many of which may be among the most fundamental of reality. To paraphrase Kant, perceptions without concepts are blind; concepts without perceptions are empty. Overlapping with the latter period of logical atomism is logical positivism, which may be dated from Moritz Schlick’s founding of the Vienna Circle in 1924. One of its principal doctrines was that science is a unity; and one of its principal projects was to show how to translate all meaningful language into scientific language, in other words, to reduce meaningful nonscientific language to scientific language. This project cannot be successful unless something distinguishes meaningful from nonmeaningful expressions. A. J. Ayer probably devoted more energy and displayed more ingenuity in trying to formulate a criterion of meaningfulness than anyone else. His first effort was presented in Language, Truth and Logic (1936), the book that became the most widely known statement of logical positivism and which introduced that philosophy to the anglophone public. The basic idea is that a sentence is meaningful if and only if it is either analytic (or contradictory) or empirically verifiable. Various objections were raised to this, and to every revision of this criterion. Part of the problem was the status of the criterion itself. Either it would be analytic and hence vacuous, or it would be empirical but then not completely confirmed. Logical positivism had been dead for some time when it was buried by Carl G. Hempel’s “Problems and Changes in the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning” (1950) and W. V. Quine’s “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (1951). Nevertheless, Ayer and others never abandoned the spirit of verifiability. What had already begun to take the place of logical positivism in the 1940s was ordinary-language philosophy, one strand of which emanated from Cambridge in the later philosophy of Wittgenstein, the other from Oxford. One of Wittgenstein’s motivating beliefs was that philosophy creates its own problems, and that means that they are not genuine problems at all. The confusion arises from philosophers’ misuse of ordinary words. They take words out of their ordinary context, the only context in which they have meaning, use them philosophically, and thereby discover anomalies with the

A Companion to Analytic Philosophy

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