Includes bibliographical references (pages 473-492) and index.
Contents:
Part IV. Ramsey's legacy. Biography -- Logic before 1879 -- Begriffsschrift I: foundations of logic -- Begriffsschrift II: propositional logic -- Begriffsschrift III: quantification -- Begriffsschrift IV: identity -- Begriffsschrift V: the ancestral -- Early philosophy of logic -- The hierarchy -- Grundlagen I: the context principle -- Grundlagen II: arithmetical truth -- Grundlagen III: numbers -- Grundlagen IV: the formal project -- Sense and reference I: singular terms -- Sense and reference II: sentences -- Sense and reference III: conceptwords -- Grundgesetze I: types -- Grundgesetze II: extensions -- The Frege-Hilbert correspondence -- Late writings -- Frege's legacy -- Part II. Russell -- Biography -- Bradley -- Geometry -- McTaggart -- German mathematics -- Whitehead -- Moore -- Leibniz -- Peano -- Early logicism -- Denoting concepts -- The contradiction -- On denoting -- Truth -- Types -- Middle logicism -- Acquaintance -- Matter -- Pre-war judgment -- Facts -- Late logicism -- Post-war judgment -- Neutral monism -- Russell's legacy -- Part III. Wittgenstein -- Biography -- Facts -- Pictures -- Propositions -- Sense -- Wittgenstein's concept-script -- Objects -- Identity -- Solipsism -- Ordinary language -- Minds -- Logic -- The metaphysical subject -- Arithmetic -- Science -- Ethics -- The mystical -- The legacy of the Tractatus -- Part IV. Ramsey -- Biography -- Truth -- Knowledge -- The foundations of mathematics I: types -- The foundations of mathematics II: logicism -- Universals -- Degrees of belief -- Facts and propositions -- Last papers -- Ramsey's legacy.
Summary:
In this book Michael Potter offers a fresh and compelling portrait of the birth of modern analytic philosophy, viewed through the lens of a detailed study of the work of the four philosophers who contributed most to shaping it: Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Frank Ramsey. It covers the remarkable period of discovery that began with the publication of Frege's Begriffsschrift in 1879 and ended with Ramsey's death in 1930. Potter--one of the most influential scholars of this period in philosophy--presents a deep but accessible account of the break with absolute idealism and neo-Kantianism, and the emergence of approaches that exploited the newly discovered methods in logic. Like his subjects, Potter focusses principally on philosophical logic, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics, but he also discusses epistemology, meta-ethics, and the philosophy of language. The book is an essential starting point for any student attempting to understand the work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Ramsey, as well as their interactions and their larger intellectual milieux. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to cast light on current philosophical problems through a better understanding of their origins.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.