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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analytic philosophy | 9/18 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_philosophy | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:19:43.103246+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Definitions of art === Sibley, Weitz, and Goodman were anti-essentialists. In "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics" (1956), Weitz famously argues necessary and sufficient conditions will never exist for the concept 'art' because it is an "open concept". Goodman thought art is not so different from science, and is another branch of epistemology. Arthur Danto argued for an "institutional definition of art" in the essay "The Artworld" (1964) in which Danto coined the term "artworld" (as opposed to the existing "art world", though they mean the same), by which he meant cultural context or "an atmosphere of art theory". George Dickie similarly states "a work of art in the classificatory sense is 1) an artifact 2) on which some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld) has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation." Dickie's student Noël Carroll is a leading philosopher of art contributing to the philosophy of film. There is also the historical definition, best exemplified by Jerrold Levinson. For Levinson, "a work of art is a thing intended for regard-as-a-work-of-art: regard in any of the ways works of art existing prior to it have been correctly regarded." In the opinion of historian of aesthetics Władysław Tatarkiewicz, there are six conditions for the presentation of art: beauty, form, representation, reproduction of reality, artistic expression, and innovation. Nicholas Wolterstorff emphasizes the social aspect of art, not as mere contemplation but as action. Langer, Levinson and Wolterstorff have all contributed to the philosophy of music.
=== Beauty === Guy Sircello's work resulted in new analytic theories of love, sublimity, and beauty. For Sircello, beauty is an objective, qualitative property. One author claims Sircello's theory is similar to Hume's. Mary Mothersill sought to restore earlier conceptions of beauty in Beauty Restored (1984). Roger Scruton also advanced theories of beauty. According to Kant scholar Paul Guyer, "After Wollheim, the most significant British aesthetician has been Roger Scruton." Scruton contributed to the philosophy of architecture.
=== Paradox of fiction === Colin Radford and Michael Weston introduced the paradox of fiction in their paper "How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina?" (1975) The paper discusses emotional responses to fiction, such as Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. Their question is how people can be moved by things that do not exist. The paper concluded people's emotional responses to fiction are irrational. American philosopher Kendall Walton's paper "Fearing Fictions" (1978) addresses the paradox. This paper served as the impetus for make-believe theory.
== Philosophy of language == Philosophy of language is still strongly influenced by earlier authors.
=== Semantics === According to one author, "In the philosophy of language, Naming and Necessity is among the most important works ever." Kripke challenged the descriptivist theory with a causal theory of reference. Ruth Barcan Marcus also challenged descriptivism with a direct reference theory, in her case a tag theory of names. Keith Donnellan too challenged descriptivism. Hilary Putnam used the Twin Earth and brain in a vat thought experiments to argue for semantic externalism, or the view that the meanings of words are not psychological. Donald Davidson uses the thought experiment of Swampman to advocate for semantic externalism. Tyler Burge uses the thought experiment of arthritis in one's thigh. Kripke in Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982) provides a skeptical, rule-following paradox, undermining the possibility of our ever following rules, and so calls into question the idea of meaning. Kripke writes this paradox is "the most radical and original skeptical problem that philosophy has seen to date". The portmanteau "Kripkenstein" has been coined as a term for a fictional person who holds the views expressed by Kripke's reading of Wittgenstein. Alonzo Church pioneered intensional logic. Czech philosopher Pavel Tichý developed transparent intensional logic.
=== Pragmatics === Paul Grice and his maxims and theory of implicature established the discipline of pragmatics. Austin and John Searle also influenced the field. Pragmatics focuses on deixis and presuppositions and other context-dependent features of language.
== Philosophy of mind ==
Analytic philosophy's interest in philosophy of language has arguably been superseded by an interest in the philosophy of mind. Two common notions in analytic philosophy of mind are intentionality, as above, and qualia, a term introduced by C. I. Lewis.
=== Physicalism === Emergent materialism holds that mental properties emerge as novel properties of complex material systems. It can be divided into emergence which denies mental causation and emergence which allows for causal effect. A version of the latter type was advocated by John Searle, called biological naturalism. The other main group of materialist views in the philosophy of mind can be labeled non-emergent (or non-emergentist) materialism, and includes philosophical behaviorism, type identity theory (reductive materialism), functionalism, and pure physicalism (eliminative materialism).
==== Behaviorism ====
Motivated by the logical positivists, behaviorism was the most prominent theory of mind in analytic philosophy for the first half of the twentieth century. Behaviorists believed either that statements about the mind were equivalent to statements about behavior and dispositions to behave in particular ways; or that mental states were directly equivalent to behavior and dispositions to behave. Hilary Putnam criticized behaviorism by arguing that it confuses the symptoms of mental states with the mental states themselves, positing "super Spartans" who never display signs of pain.
==== Type identity ==== Behaviorism later became much less popular in favor of either type identity theory or functionalism. Type identity theory or type physicalism identified mental states with brain states. Former students of Ryle at the University of Adelaide Jack Smart and Ullin Place argued for type physicalism. Type identity was criticized by Putnam and others using multiple realizability. The criticism spawned anomalous monism.