From Frege to Wittgenstein : Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

In recent years, analytic philosophy has gained a new historical self‐consciousness. A considerable amount of work, both historically informed and philosophically subtle, is being done now on its origins and development. This is especially true for early analytic philosophy (roughly 1880–1930) and the corresponding works of Frege, Russell, Moore, and Wittgenstein. In this collection, 15 previously unpublished essays explore different facets of this period, with special emphasis on the vital intellectual relationship between Frege and the early Wittgenstein. The essays examine a number of important issues: the content and the analysis of thought, the nature of truth, the special status of logic, the foundations of mathematics, the basis of linguistic representation, the distinction between sense and nonsense, and the peculiarities of philosophical elucidation and understanding.