分析哲学とは、ゴットロープ・フレーゲ、バートランド・ラッセル、ジョージ・エドワード・ムーア、ルートヴィヒ・ウィトゲンシュタインによる思想に起源をもち第二次世界大戦後は北米、またヨーロッパでもさらに発展し、今ではラテンアメリカや東アジアまで広くに影響を与えています。本書では分析哲学における最適な入門書であり、いかにして分析哲学が世界中において哲学の主流になりえたかを解説します。(cf. Continental Philosophy, #043)
 

• Offers a clear, accessible introduction to analytic philosophy, introducing some of the key ideas of five of its main founders
• Illustrates the fruitfulness and conceptual creativity of analytic philosophy
• Explores the spread of analytic philosophy to become the dominant philosophical tradition across the world
• Discusses the criticisms of analytic philosophy

Originating in the pioneering work of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the four decades around the turn of the twentieth century, analytic philosophy established itself in various forms in the 1930s. After the Second World War, it developed further in North America, in the rest of Europe, and is now growing in influence as the dominant philosophical tradition right across the world, from Latin America to East Asia. 

In this Very Short Introduction Michael Beaney introduces some of the key ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy by exploring certain fundamental philosophical questions and showing how those ideas can be used in offering answers. Considering the work of Susan Stebbing, he also explores the application of analytic philosophy to critical thinking, and emphasizes the conceptual creativity that lies at the heart of fruitful analysis. Throughout, Beaney illustrates why clarity of thinking, precision of expression, and rigour of argumentation are rightly seen as virtues of analytic philosophy.