An introduction to philosophical analysis

by John Hospers

Paperback, 1990

Status

Available

Call number

100

Collections

Your library, Philosophy

Publication

Routledge (1990), Edition: 3Rev Ed, 432 pages

Description

John Hospers' Introduction to Philosophical Analysis has sold over 150,000 copies since its first publication. This new edition ensures that its success will continue into the twenty-first century. It remains the most accessible and authoritative introduction to philosophy available using the full power of the problem-based approach to the area to ensure that philosophy is not simply taught to students but practised by them. The most significant change to this edition is to respond to criticisms regarding the omission in the third edition of the famous opening chapter. A brand new chapter, Words and the World, replaces this in the fourth edition - which now features a large number of examples and illustrative dialogues. The rest of the text has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of recent developments in some areas of philosophy.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member RonManners

"In this Introduction to Philosophical Analysis, Professor Hospers gives a systematic consideration of all the major problems and issues of philosophy. He opens with a chapter on scmantk 'Words and the World'_whjch helps to remove the main word-pitfalls for the approaching student. The latter is

encouraged to reason out problems for himself by being given full background and step-by-step arguments, and is thus given a feeling for philosophical reasoning rather than a summary of philosophical positions. Throughout the text, dialogues present opposing views on different philosophical problems, e.g. a discussion between a rationalist and a logical empiricist on the laws of logic, a verificationist versus a metaphysician on the problem of substance, etc. The author provides nearly two hundred questions at the ends of chapters to develop the students' ability to think analytically, and adds an extensive reading list from a balanced selection of outside authorities."
Taken from the Dust Jacket

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LibraryThing member RonManners

"The fourth edition contains a long introductory chapter on philosophy and language.
I believe still, that philosophical problems can best be clarified, and some of them solved or dissolved, by first discussing the influence of language on the problems we employ language to discuss, and that, far

from being an irrelevance or a delay in the philosophical process such a discussion is a shortcut to the comprehension of philosophical issues."
Taken from the Preface to the Fourth Edition.

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