what is analytic philosophy?

Analytic philosophy is perhaps the most dominant approach to philosophy in the Anglo-American tradition. If you do or professionally teach philosophy, in English at least, whether in colleges or universitites, then you most likely will be doing it in the analytic way. You may even identify yourself as an analytic philosopher.

Analytic Philosophy is difficult to define (which important concept or method isn't?) and experts will tell you that there is no consensus over what 'analytic philosophy' means, what its aims, concerns, methods and successes are. However, one common conception of Analytic Philosophy identifies it with the following intellectual virtues:

1. Clarity of thinking about various philosophical issues so as to get as clear as possible on them.
2. Precision in expressing ideas and analyses in the most exacting and accurate terms (this may be through ordinary language or technical vocabulary).
3. Rigour in argumentation which is to be throrough and careful in presenting arguments - often through formal logic.

In addition to the above, other experts argue that Analytic Philosophy exhibits other virtues not immediately associated with it but can be just as important:

1. Creativity, i.e. imaginatively using original or existing ideas to generate conceptually novel and meaningful ones.
2. Fruitfullness, i.e. being productive in applying conceptually creative and novel ideas and analyses in order to provide beneficial, cogent and coherent philosophical answers.
3. Systematisation, i.e. a set of claims unified by a single motivation,  method or outlook that looks at building systems of thought as opposed to just piecemeal analysis.

We could then descriptively conclude by saying that Analytic Philosophy is an approach to philosophy that seeks out clarity, precision and rigour but also involves creativity with an aim to be productive and systematic.

A very small representataive list of the figures in the Analytic Philosophy tradition from pioneers, explorers to developers and paradigm shifters along with a key work include the following:

Gottlob Frege (1848-1925): Über Sinn und Bedeutung 

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): On Denoting

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): Philosophische Untersuchungen

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970): Meaning and Necessity

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976): The Concept of Mind

Paul Grice (1913-1988): Studies in the Way of Words

C.G. Hempel  (1905–1997) : Aspects of Scientific Explanation

W.V. Quine (1908-2000): Word and Object

Saul Kripke (1940-): Naming and Necessity 

David Lewis (1941-2001): Counterfactuals

Hilary Putnam (1926-2016): Reason, Truth and History

Bas Van Fraassen (1941-): The Scientific Image 

David Chalmers (1966-): The Conscious Mind

Some useful works outlining the gestation and development of Analytic Philosophy as well as its aims, method and significance are the following:

• Beaney, M. 2017. Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Beaney, M. 2013. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Analytic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Glock, H. 2008. What is Analytic Philosophy? Cambridge University Press.
• Martinich, A. P. and Sosa, E. D. 2008. (eds.). A Companion to Analytic Philosophy. Oxford and Malden, MA. Blackwell Publishers.
• Schwartz, S. 2012. A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.