The school of analytic philosophy has dominated academic philosophy in Great Britain and the United States since the early twentieth century. It originated around the turn of the twentieth century with Frege, G.E. Moore, Whitehead, Wittgenstein, and Bertrand Russell, who wrote later:

“It was towards the end of 1898 that Moore and I rebelled against both Kant and Hegel. Moore led the way, but I followed closely in his footsteps…. I felt…a great liberation, as if I had escaped from a hot house onto a windswept headland. In the first exuberance of liberation, I became a naïve realist and rejoiced in the thought that grass really is green. (Russell 1959, 22)

Analytic philosophy is characterized above all by the goal of clarity, the insistence on explicit argumentation in philosophy, and the demand that any view expressed be exposed to the rigours of critical evaluation and discussion.

Analytic Philosophy applies logical techniques in order to reach conceptual clarity. It also demands that philosophy should be consistent with modern science. For many Analytic Philosophers, language is the principal tool, and philosophy consists in clarifying how language can be used.

Analytic Philosophy rejects Hegelianism for its vague, obscure, and absolutist language, and develops a new conceptual analysis based on new developments in Logic. Analytic philosophers made substantial contributions to philosophical logic .

The three main pillars of analytic philosophy are:

1. There is no specific philosophical truth; the object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts.

2. The logical clarification of thoughts can only be achieved by analysis of the logical form of philosophical propositions, such as by using the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical system. It is a philosophy of language.

3. It rejects sweeping philosophical systems and grand theories in favor of close attention to detail. It also defends common sense and ordinary language against speculative forms or metaphysics, religion, and ethics.

Weblinks:

Internet Encyclopedia: Analytic Philosophy