Philosophy,Logic,Science,History.pdfVIP

© 2012 The Author Metaphilosophy © 2012 Metaphilosophy LLC and Blackwell Publishing Ltd Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA METAPHILOSOPHY Vol. 43, Nos. 1–2, January 2012 0026-1068 PHILOSOPHY, LOGIC, SCIENCE, HISTORY TIM CRANE Abstract: Analytic philosophy is sometimes said to have particularly close connec- tions to logic and to science, and no particularly interesting or close relation to its own history. It is argued here that although the connections to logic and science have been important in the development of analytic philosophy, these connections do not come close to characterizing the nature of analytic philosophy, either as a body of doctrines or as a philosophical method. We will do better to understand analytic philosophy—and its relationship to continental philosophy—if we see it as a historically constructed collection of texts, which define its key problems and concerns. It is true, however, that analytic philosophy has paid little attention to the history of the subject. This is both its strength—since it allows for a distinctive kind of creativity—and its weakness—since ignoring history can encourage a philosophical variety of “normal science.” Keywords: analytic philosophy, science, scientism, logic, method, history. Philosophy This essay is an attempt to understand some aspects of the relationship between philosophy and three other broad intellectual endeavours with which is it often associated: logic, science, and history. The tradition of philosophy that currently dominates the United States and much of Europe—so-called analytic philosophy—has often been thought to have especially close relationships with logic and science, and no particularly close relationship with history and the history of philosophy. In what follows, I question wh