Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy by Tom Sorell

Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy by Tom Sorell

Philosophy written in English is overwhelmingly analytic philosophy, and the techniques and predilections of analytic philosophy are not only unhistorical but anti-historical, and hostile to textual commentary. Analytic usually aspires to a very high degree of clarity and precision of formulation and argument, and it often seeks to be informed by, and consistent with, current natural science. In an earlier era, analytic philosophy aimed at agreement with ordinary linguistic intuitions or common sense beliefs, or both. All of these aspects of the subject sit uneasily with the use of historical texts for philosophical illumination.How, then, can substantial history of philosophy find a place in analytic philosophy? If history of philosophy includes the respectful, intelligent use of writings from the past to address problems that are being debated in the current philosophical journals, then history of philosophy may well belong to analytic philosophy. But if history of philosophy is more than this; if it is concerned with interpreting and reinterpreting a certain canon, or perhaps making a case for extending this canon, its connection with analytic philosophy is less clear. More obscure still is the connection between analytic philosophy and a kind of history of philosophy that is unapologetically antiquarian. This is the kind of history of philosophy that emphasises the status of a philosophical text as one document among others from a faraway intellectual world, and that tries to acquaint us with that world in order to produce understanding of the document.In this book, ten distinguished historians of philosophy, mostly trained in the analytic tradition, explore the tensions between, and the possibilities of reconciling, analytic philosophy and history of philosophy.

timely, balanced and of the highest quality* P. J. E. Kail, Mind Journal *
a fine collection of essays written by fine historians, who...show how fascinating the history of philosophy can be * Paul Schuurman, British Journal for the History of Philosophy *

Sorell, Tom: - Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University. From 2008 to 2012, he led the European Union FP7 Security project DETECTER (on the ethics and human rights issues surrounding the use of detection technologies in counter-terrorism) and is now leader of several Work Packages in the current SURVEILLE project (2012-15). He is Principal Investigator of the major AHRC project, 'Responsibilities, Ethics and the Financial Crisis' (FinCris), running from 2012 to 2015, and also contributes to the FP7 IT project ACCOMPANY, on robotics and care companions. He has published monographs in history of philosophy, especially on Hobbes and Descartes; moral and political philosophy; epistemology and philosophy of science; as well as several distinct areas of applied ethics.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199278992
ISBN 10	0199278997
Title	Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy
Author	Tom Sorell
Series	Mind Association Occasional Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2005-03-24
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.