Course : Fundamentals of Analytic Philosophy

The course introduces the foundations of analytic philosophy through close reading of a series of influential texts texts, with each week devoted to the careful study of a single work or article. The course is broadly organized around the figure of Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose early and later philosophies serve as key reference points for understanding the development of analytic thought. 

Beginning with Frege and Russell, students will examine the emrgence of logical analysis and the philosophical turn to language, followed by an in-depth study of Wittgenstein's Tractatus and its impact on logical positivism and its critics. The course then turns to Wittgenstein's later philosophy in the Philosophical Investigations, alongside related developments in ordinary language philosophy. The final part of the course explores how later analytic philosophers responded to Wittgenstein's chanllenges by reintroducing systematic reflection on meaning, normativity and explanation.

Week 1: Introduction: From Classical Philosophy to the Analytic Turn.

Week 2: G. Frege [“On Sense and Reference” (1892)]

Week 3: B. Russell [“On Denoting” (1905)]

Week 4: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus I

Week 5: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus II

Week 6: Logical positivism [R. Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language” (1932)]

Week 7: Criticisms of logical positivism [W.V.O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (1951)]

Week 8: Philosophical Investigations I

Week 9: Philosophical Investigations II

Week 10: After Wittgenstein: Theory, Norms and Metaphysics [W. Sellars “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind” (1956)]