Acknowledgements xii

List of Abbreviations xiv

Chapter 1 The Background 1

1 The origins of analytic philosophy 1

2 The problem-setting context of the Tractatus 12

Chapter 2 The Achievement of the Tractatus 22

1 Unquestioned legacy 22

2 Criticisms of Frege and Russell 26

3 The metaphysical picture of the relation of thought, language and reality 29

4 The positive account of the propositions of logic 32

5 The critique of metaphysics and the conception of future philosophy as analysis 35

Chapter 3 The Impact of the Tractatus: The Vienna Circle 39

1 The Vienna Circle 39

2 Philosophy, analysis, and the scientific world-view 42

3 The demolition of metaphysics 44

4 Necessary propositions, conventionalism and consistent empiricism 45

5 The principle of verification 50

6 The unity of science 59

Chapter 4 The Inter-war Years: Cambridge and Oxford 67

1 Cambridge between the wars 67

2 Wittgenstein in Cambridge 76

3 Oxford between the wars 87

Chapter 5 The Achievement of the Investigations 97

1 The hedgehog and the fox 97

2 The repudiation of analysis 103

3 The nature of philosophy 110

4 Metaphysics 117

5 Philosophy of language and the unity of the Investigations 123

6 Philosophical psychology 130

Chapter 6 Wittgenstein’s Impact upon Post-war Analytic Philosophy 137

1 Publications and pupils 138

2 Philosophy at Oxford, 1945-70 148

3 Wittgenstein and post-war philosophy at Oxford 162

Chapter 7 Post-positivism in the United States and Quine’s Apostasy 183

1 The logical positivists in America 183

2 Quine and Wittgenstein: similarity amidst differences 189

3 Quine and logical empiricism: the end of analytic philosophy? 193

4 Quine’s progress 196

5 Quine and Wittgenstein: differences beneath similarities 207

Chapter 8 The decline of Analytic Philosophy 228

1 The critical backlash 228

2 Criticisms of Wittgenstein 239

3 The aftermath 264

Notes 274

Index 334