What is analytical philosophy?

Cesare Cozzo

pp. 55-63

in: Rosaria Egidi (ed), In search of a new humanism, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

Professor von Wright is a prominent analytical philosopher who has written about the very notion of analytical philosophy. Other analytical philosophers are present here and they have their ideas on this notion. As for me, I believe that it is not at all an obvious notion. Sometimes it seemed to me that analytical philosophy does not exist, or at least that there is no single common philosophical feature shared by all so-called analytical philosophers and only by them, though there are many family resemblances. Therefore I thought I might take the opportunity of this meeting in honour of Professor von Wright and propose as one of our themes for discussion, precisely the question: "what is analytical philosophy?". The natural start is Professor von Wright's description of analytical philosophy.