Logic and Language -- A Classic Anthology of Analytic Philosophy

Author: Chen Bo, Han Linhe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Always clearly distinguish between the psychological and the logical, the subjective and the objective; never seek the meaning of a word in isolation, but only within the context of a sentence; never disregard the distinction between concepts and objects.
—Frege
Logic is the essence of philosophy.
—Russell
Whatever can be said can be said clearly; whatever cannot be said should be kept silent.
—Wittgenstein
The meaning of a proposition is the method of verifying it.
—Schlick
The whole of our knowledge or beliefs, from the accidental events of geography and history to the profound laws of atomic physics, even pure mathematics and logic, is an artificial fabric. It merely touches experience along its edges.
—Quine
The distinction between analytic and other kinds of philosophy has become relatively unimportant. This is a matter of style and tradition, not a difference in methods or principles.
—Rorty
Editing an anthology of classic works in analytic philosophy can be done in many ways, such as by theme, such as the philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, etc. After careful consideration, this book is organized roughly chronologically, with the principle of selecting essays being: one, they have exerted a significant influence in the development of analytic philosophy; two, their ideas are original. However, there is also a technical consideration in the actual selection process: some classic papers, such as Russell's On Denotation, Strawson's On Reference, Quine's Two Dogmas of Empiricism, Tarski's The Semantic Concept of Truth and the Foundation of Semantics, Davidson's Truth and Meaning, are already available in multiple Chinese anthologies or translations. Due to space limitations, we have omitted them and selected other important articles that have not yet been translated into Chinese.