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ANALYTIC

PHILOSOPHY
Prepared by:
DENVER JANE D. DASAM

Analytic Philosophy
Analytic Philosophy(or sometimesAnalytical Philosophy) is
a20th Centurymovement in philosophy which holds that
philosophy should applylogical techniquesin order to
attainconceptual
clarity.
For
many
Analytic
Philosophers,languageis theprincipal(perhaps theonly) tool,
and philosophy consists in clarifying how language can beused.
As a specific movement,it was led byBertrand Russell,
Alfred North Whitehead,G. E. MooreandLudwig Wittgenstein.
Turning away from then-dominant forms ofHegelianism, they
began to develop a new sort ofconceptual analysisbased on
new
developments
inLogic,
and
succeeded
in
makingsubstantial contributionsto philosophicalLogicover
thefirst half of the 20th Century.

Analytic Philosophyis not a school of thought


united by a shared doctrines, but a loosely defined style
of investigation employing variety of logical, linguistic,
and epistemological methods, predicated on the belief
that such methods are useful in solving variety of
philosophical problems, or dissolving philosophical
confusions.
Methods includes:
Techniques of definition
Articulating and evaluating arguments
Making explicit structures of thoughts, bodies of thoughts,
and normative relationships, including ones that obtain
between persons, institutions, and the like.

Developments of Analytic
Philosophy
Early developmentsin Analytic
Philosophy arose out of the work of
the German mathematician and
logicianGottlob Frege(widely
regarded as thefatherofmodern
philosophical logic), and his
development ofPredicate Logic.

Predicate Logic
Which allowed a much greater range of sentences to be
parsed into logical form that was possible using the
Aristotelian logic.
Example:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Socrates is mortal.
In English, the predicate is the part of the sentence that tells you
something about the subject.

Bertrand Russelland Alfred North Whitehead, particularly in


their groundbreaking"Principia Mathematica"(1910-1913)
and their development of Symbolic Logic, attempted to show
that
mathematics
isreducibletofundamental
logical
principles.
Russell adopted Frege's predicate logic as his primary
philosophical method, a method which he thought could expose
the underlying structure of philosophical problems.
Example:
in English word is has three distinct meanings which Predicate Logic
can express as follows:
a. The cat is asleep.; the is of predication means that X is P
b. There is a cat.; the is of existence means that there is an X
c. Three is half of six; the is of identity means that X is the same as Y

SYMBOLIC LOGIC
All logical reasoning is based on statements. A statement is a
sentence that is either true or false.
Traditionally, symbolic logic uses lower case letters to denote
statements. Usually the letters p, q, r, s, t. Statements get labels. (p:
It is raining. )
Example: (Conjunction) A compound statement that consists of 2 or
more statements connected by the word and.
And is represented by the symbol ^.
p ^ q represents p and q.
p: Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian.
q: Jerry Seinfeld is a millionaire.
Express the following in symbolic form:
i. Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian and he is a millionaire.

From about 1910 to 1930, Analytic Philosophers like


RussellandWittgensteinfocused on creating anideal
languagefor philosophical analysis (known asIdeal
Language AnalysisorFormalism), which would be
free from theambiguitiesof ordinary language that, in
their view, often got philosophers into trouble.

During this phase, Russell and Wittgenstein sought


to understand language (and hence philosophical
problems) by usingformal logicto formalize the way
in which philosophical statementsare made.

Analytic philosophys fundamental idea is simple: illdefined problems yield erroneous solutions. Early analytic
philosophers such as G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell and
Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that many of the problems that
had for centuries beleaguered philosophers were the result of
language used poorly and that such problems would not as
much be solved as dissolved -- shown to be pseudo-problems
by being correctly formulated in plain language.
Bruce Maxwell

In
his
"Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus"of
1921,
Wittgensteinsuggested that the world is merely the
existence of certainstates of affairswhich can be
expressed in the language offirst-order predicate logic,
so that a picture of the world can be built up by
expressingatomic factsinatomic propositions, and
linking them usinglogical operators, a theory sometimes
referred to asLogical Atomism.
Logical atomismThe theory that the world is consists of
ultimate logical "facts" (or "atoms") that cannot be broken
down any further.
In Posivistic approach, the scientific truth and success is
measured by positivistic education, in the sense of right and
true must be concrete, exact, accurate, and provide benefit.

In the late1920s, 1930s and 1940s,Russelland


Wittgenstein's Formalism was picked up by theVienna
CircleandBerlin Circlewhich developed into the
Logical Positivismmovement, which focused on universal
logical terms, supposedly separate from contingent factors
such as culture, language, historical conditions.
Logical Positivism - used formal logical methods to develop
an empiricist account of knowledge. Philosophers such as
Rudolf Carnap andHans Reichenbach, claimed that the
truths of logic and mathematics weretautologies, and those
of science were verifiable empirical claims.
These two constituted the entire universe of meaningful
judgments; anything else was nonsense.

Logical positivists typically considered philosophy as having


a very limited function. For them, philosophy is concerned
with the clarification of thoughts, rather than having a
distinct subject matter of its own.
The Positivists adopted theverification principle, according
to which every meaningful statement is eitheranalyticor is
capable of being verified by experience. This caused the
logical positivists to reject many traditional problems of
philosophy, especially those ofmetaphysicsorontology, as
meaningless.
Verificationism is the idea that a statement or question
only has meaning if there is some way to determine if the
statement is true, or what the answer to the question is.

In the late1940s and 1950s, followingWittgenstein's


later philosophy, Analytic Philosophy took a turn toward
Ordinary Language Philosophy, which emphasized the
use ofordinary languagebyordinary people.
Ordinary-language philosophers claimed that ordinary
language already represented a large number of subtle
distinctions that had been unrecognized by the formulation of
traditional philosophical theories or problems.
While schools such as logical positivism emphasize logical
terms, supposed to be universal and separate from
contingent factors (such as culture, language, historical
conditions), ordinary-language philosophy emphasizes the
use of language by ordinary people.

Ordinary language philosophy is a school that


approached traditional philosophical problems as
rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by
forgetting what words actually mean in a language.

Following heavyattackson Analytic Philosophy in the


1950s
and
1960s,
bothLogical Positivismand
Ordinary Language Philosophyrapidlyfell out of fashion.
However, many philosophers inBritainandAmericaafter
the 1970's still considered themselves to be "analytic"
philosophers, (generally characterized byprecisionand
thoroughness about anarrow topic), although less
emphasis
onlinguistics
and
an
increasedeclecticismorpluralismcharacteristic
of
Post-Modernismis also evident.

MorecontemporaryAnalytic Philosophy has also


included
extensive
work
inother
areasof
philosophy, such as:
inEthicsby Phillipa Foot(1920 - ),R. M. Hare(1919 2002) andJ. L. Mackie(1917 - 1981);
inPolitical PhilosophybyJohn
Rawls(1921
andRobert Nozick(1938 - 2002);

2002)

inAestheticsbyArthur Danto(1924 - 2013); and,

inPhilosophy of MindbyDaniel
andPaul Churchland(1942 - ).

Dennett(1942

In this more specific sense, analytic philosophy is


identified with specific philosophical traits such as:
There are not any specifically philosophical facts and that
the object of philosophy is the logical clarification of
thoughts. (logical positivism)
The logical clarification of thoughts can be achieved only by
analysis of thelogical formof philosophical propositions. The
logical form of a proposition is a way of representing it (often
using theformal grammarand symbolism of alogical system
), to reduce it to simpler components if necessary, and to
display its similarity with all other propositions of the same
type. (Formalism or Symbolic Logic)
The neglect of generalized philosophical systems in favour of

R.S. Peters
Richard Stanley Peters(31 Oct 1919
30 Dec 2011) was a British philosopher.
His work belongs mainly to the areas of
political theory, philosophicalpsychology
, andphilosophy of education.
- His research was in the areas of
motivation, emotions, personality
as well as social behaviour and the
relationship between reason and
longing.
- Perhaps, his most important work
isEthics and Education.
With this and his subsequent publications he significantly influenced the
development of the philosophy of education in Britain and world-wide.

The influence was a result of his examination of the concept of education in the
sense of analytic philosophy, a central tool being term analysis.
Peters explored two substantial aspects of the philosophy of education: the
normative and the cognitive.

He suggests four main areas of work.


1. The analysis of concepts specific to education, an area which can be seen as
falling under philosophical psychology and social philosophy.
2. The application of ethics and social philosophy to assumptions about the
desirable content and procedures of education.
3. Examination of the conceptual schemes and assumptions used by educational
psychologists about educational processes.
4. Examination of the philosophical character of the content and organization of
the curriculum and related questions about learning.

In 1962, Peters was selected as the Chair of Philosophy of


Education at the University of Londons Institute of
Education, where he worked tirelessly to demonstrate the
importance of conceptual clarity in teaching, teacher
education and education policy and to establish the
philosophy of education as an autonomous sub-discipline
of applied philosophy.
Peters built up a department staffed by faculty members
who were trained both as teachers and as analytic
philosophers.
They believed that the clarification of key concepts in
education teaching, learning, skill, achievement, aims,

According to his analysis, in ordinary language Education


implies the intentional transmission by ethical means of
knowledge that is valuable to those who become acquainted
with it. Its value derives from being conducive to a general
understanding of the world and ones place in it (Peters,
1966).

Under critical pressure, Peters and likeminded philosophers of


education came to concede that conceptual analysis in
education does more than simply clarify conceptual schemes.
Peterss most important contribution to moral education is his
treatment of what he called the paradox of moral education
(1981).

Most people agree that the goal of moral education should be


moral autonomy: the rational, free and intelligent adherence to a
moral code. However, moral education faces two strategic
difficulties:
- First, very young children are impervious to moral reasoning.
That, they not yet cognitively able to grasp a moral rules
rationale and must therefore be made to conform to rules they
cannot understand.
- Second, and as Aristotle pointed out long ago, if people are not
trained from an early age to imitate the affective and
behavioural responses typical of a person of good moral
character they are unlikely to develop them as spontaneous
responses in adult life.
This is the paradox: the use of constraint and habituation seems
inevitable in moral education but their use would also seem to

Peters proposed to resolve it by attending to the distinction between


learning to act in accordance with a rule and learning to act on
a rule (Peters, 1981).
- acting in accordance with a rule means merely to behave blindly as the
rule prescribes
- acting on a rule means to adopt it as an intelligent guide to ones
behaviour, or flexibly, intentionally and with an understanding of its
point.
Echoing both Piaget and Deweys work on the moral development of
the child, Peters advanced that children learn to understand moral
rules and to apply them intelligently by trying to use them in actual
social contexts.
From this perspective, being forced or drilled to act in accordance with
a moral rule, far from being antithetical to moral autonomy, is
developmentally necessary to its achievement. Young children,

Three Criteria for Education:


1) Desirablestateofminddevelops-somethingofvaluemustbe
passedalong.
2)Tobeeducatedimpliesbeingbroughttocareaboutitandpossess
therelevantknowledgeorskillinawaythatinvolvesatleasta
minimumofunderstandingandvoluntariness.
3)Educationinvolvesseeingwhatisbeingdoneinaperspectivethat
isnottoonarrow.Itimpliescognitiveawareness,anditrelates to
otherfields.(Differencesbetweenknowingwhatand knowinghow.

Paul H. Hirst
Paul Quentin Hirst(20 May 1946 17 June 2003) was a British
sociologist and political theorist. He
became Professor of Social Theory at
Birkbeck, University of Londonin
1985 and held the post until his death
from a stroke and brain haemorrhage.
Hirst wrote a paper in 1973 entitled
"Liberal Education and the Nature of
Knowledge"
-

"Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge" (reprinted in Hirst, P


(1974) "Knowledge and the Curriculum"). In this he writes that:
"to acquire knowledge is to become aware of experience as
structured, organised and made meaningful in some quite specific way,
and the varieties of human knowledge constitute the highly developed
forms in which man has found this possible.
To acquire knowledge is to learn to see, to experience the world in a
way otherwise unknown, and thereby to come to have a mind in a fuller
sense" .
In rejecting various forms of mentalism and behaviourism, he
asserts that:
"to have a mind basically involves coming to have experience
articulated by means of various conceptual schemata. It is only
because man has over millenia objectified and progressively developed
these that he has achieved the forms of human knowledge, and the

In attempting to identify the 'forms of knowledge', Hirst sets about


identifying 'distinguishing features:
1. They each involve certain central concepts that are
peculiar in character to the form. For example, those of
gravity, acceleration, hydrogen and photo-synthesis characteristic
of the sciences; number, integral and matrix in mathematics; God,
sin and predestination in religion; ought, good and wrong in moral
knowledge.
2. In a given form of knowledge these and other concepts
that denote, if perhaps in a very complex way, certain
aspects of experience, form a network of possible
relationships in which experience can be understood. As a
result the form has a distinctive logical structure. For
example, the terms and statements of mechanics can be

3. The form, by virtue of its particular terms and logic, has


expressions or statements (possibly answering a
distinctive type of question) that in some way or other,
however indirect it may be, are testable against
experience. This is the case in scientific knowledge, moral
knowledge, and in the arts, though in the arts no questions are
explicit and the criteria for the tests are only partially expressible
in words. Each form, then, has distinctive expressions that are
testable against experience in accordance with particular criteria
that are peculiar to the form
4. The forms have developed particular techniques and
skills for exploring experience and testing their distinctive
expressions, for instance the techniques of the sciences and
those of the various literary arts. The result has been the
amassing of all the symbolically expressed knowledge that we

However Hirst also points out that "All knowledge


involves the use of symbols and the making of
judgements in ways that cannot be expressed in
words and can only be learnt in a tradition.
A further classification is introduced to deal with the fact
that not all knowledge falls within the remit of 'disciplines'.
So he argues that a further classification between 'forms' of
knowledge and 'fields' of knowledge:
1. Distinct disciplines or forms of knowledge (subdivisible):
mathematics, physical sciences, human sciences, history,
religion, literature and the fine arts, philosophy.
2. Fields of knowledge: theoretical, practical (these may or
may not include elements of moral knowledge)

The Content Model


The content model of curriculum is one developed largely from
the ideas of philosopher Paul Hirst in which there was an
emphasis on intellectual development.
A curriculum is a blueprint for the people we want children to
become. On it, we inscribe our aspirations for the kind of world
we trust them to shape as adults. It does not emerge by
accident. As the philosopher Paul Hirst reminds us:
There can be no curriculum without objectives. Unless
there is some point to planning the activities, some
intended, learnable outcome, however vague this might
be, there is no such thing as a curriculum (Hirst, 1974).

The content based curriculum was one that


emphasised intellectual development and identified
eight forms of knowledge that people learn about the
world, these being maths, science, people, literature,
fine arts, religion, philosophy and morals.
Within the content model a range of subjects are
separated and within that curriculum some are
considered of higher status than others.

The analysis developed by Hirst and Peters (1970) and


Peters (1973) of the concept of education itself become
among the most influential.
Using as a touchstone normal English usage, it was
concluded that a person who has been educated (rather
than instructed or indoctrinated) has been:
(i) changed for the better;
(ii) this change has involved the acquisition of knowledge
and intellectual skills, and the development of
understanding; and
(iii) the person has come to care for, or be committed to, the
domains of knowledge and skill into which he or she has

The method used by Hirst and Peters comes across


clearly in their handling of the analogy with the concept
of reform, one they sometimes drew upon for
expository purposes.
A criminal who has been reformed has changed for the
better, and has developed a commitment to the new
mode of life.
Clearly the analogy with reform breaks down with respect
to the knowledge and understanding conditions.
Elsewhere Peters developed the fruitful notion of
education as initiation.

Analytic Philosophy is a rejection of traditional philosophy


which is too speculative, idealistic and abstract as exemplified
by the common early metaphysical question;
What is the nature of being?
What is real, mind or matter?
According to Thompson;(1995:182), is concerned with the
meaning of statements and the way in which their truth can
be verified, and with using philosophy as analytic tool to
examine and show the presuppositions of our language and
thought.
Example of statements:
The standard of education has fallen down.
Ineffectiveness of schools lowers the standard
of

- Analytic philosophy is an activity itself not a


system of thought like other philosophies as
emphasized by Vennagum in (Popkin and
Stroll:1981) that it is not a theory but an
activity.
- A good example of philosophy as an activity
rather than a theory is through Socratic
method; which tries to clarify peoples ideas by
seeking clarification of questions which
ultimately leads to agreed, precise and

This begins with:


- posing a question focusing on
concepts or terms; freedom,
courage, fear, discipline, beauty,
performance;
- define the term in relation to
peoples experiences;
- consider their opposites;
- clarify the meaning;
-

In education we have many concepts


that need to be analyzed and verified
like:
-

Child-centered teaching/learning
Aims, purpose and goals of education
Integrated curriculum
Free education
Subject advisers
Inspectors, supervisors
Gender sensitive

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): the goal of analysis was to


reduce all complex descriptive propositions to their ultimately
simple constituent propositions.
Complex descriptive proposition
Square circles are nonexistent things
Simple proposition
No squares are circular
Russell (1872-1970) in) contends that analysis is the proper
method of philosophy.
Ryle: Analysis is a linguistic therapy to the confusion of
traditional philosophy.
Logical positivists who proclaimed the verifiability criterion
of meaning contends that philosophy is not a theory but an
activity whose business is the logical clarification of thought.

So, analytic philosophy:


- does not deal with building systems of
thought;
- deals with clarification of language that we
use to explain phenomenon;
- does not prescribe goals in education but
enable us to understand better those goals
and aims prescribed;
- simplifies communication to facilitate
understanding of meaning by checking the
clarity of language.

Functions
It has no specific content it deals with logical
analysis of language; concepts and statements in
order to:
- examine clarity of statements and concepts and
remove ambiguity and confusion;
- express ideas and meanings precisely and
accurately;
- solve the problem of meaning by testing it through
experience;

- distinguish meaningful and meaningless


statements. Statements without any factual or
objective meaning must be rejected.
- Values and morals are just seen as emotive
statements, without any factual or objective
meaning. So statements that are meaningful are
only those that can be empirically verified.
It is virtuous to help others
Corruption is an enemy of the people.
Corruption is evil.

- classify statements: analytical and synthetic;


Analytical propositions depends on the terms
they contain, meaning is intrinsic.
Ex. All bachelors are unmarried.
Synthetic statements can only be verified
empirically, they do not contain truth in themselves.
Ex. All bachelors are unhappy.
- remove internal contradictions of statements when
analyzing interpretation of issues and problems;
- precise formulation and expression of ideas for easy
communication;

In education
More concerned with formulation of education ideas and clear
expression of those ideas for easy understanding;
A university that tries to put its professors and its students as
blinkers will neither serve the cause of knowledge, nor the
interest of the society in which it exists (Nyerere in Lema et al;
2006:29)
Analysis of other peoples ideas on education to avoid
misunderstanding
Discuss the concepts that are commonly used in education,
teaching, learning, knowledge and curriculum to check their
clarity.
Discuss issues and problems that arise in the conduct of
education, analyze them and put them in clear perspective;

In the process of analysis, check:


normal use of the concept;
find distinctive meanings;
find common criteria of the usage;
discover various possible meanings;
how the meanings relate to one another;
how the meaning is related to other concepts;
what is the most adequate or appropriate meaning;
precision in the expression of ones ideas
There is need for careful attention and sensibility to the
use of the concepts

Relevance to Education
Teaching sound reasoning
Avoid contradictions in statements
Making use of all available evidence and facts when
putting forward an argument
Teachers learn to accept or reject arguments on the basis
of their soundness and clarity not on emotional basis or
who is making an argument.
Through clarification and precise analysis a teacher can
understand personal prejudices and expose what are the
real issues

Uses to Teachers
School teachers can:
Avoid unnecessary disagreements, contradictions,
inconsistencies and dogmatic decisions, trains high sense
of imagination and reasoning;
Justify and weigh opinions of different groups in the school
or in the community and analyze what is right, wrong or
rational;
express concepts clearly in classroom;
Critically analyze issues for comprehensive decisions
Analyze language as symbolic meaning of communication

It is not the case


that teaching necessarily
implies learning.
What teaching implies is
merely the intention to bring
about learning.
-PaulH.Hirst

References
Akinpelu, J (1981): An Introduction to Philosophy of Education.
McMillan: Oxford
Halverson, W (1981): Concise Readings in Philosophy. Random
House: New York.
Moore & Bruder (1990): Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. Mayfield
Publishing Com.
Nyirenda, S & Ishumi (2000): Introduction to Philosophical Concepts,
Principles and Practice. Dar-es-Salaam University Press: Dar-esSalaam.
Thompson, M (): Philosophy. Hodder Headline: London
Lema, E (2006): Nyerere on Education -Volume II: Selected Essays
and Speeches 1961-1967.Haki Elimu & E & D Limited: Dar-es-Salaa.

Online Materials:
http:/www.wikipedia.com
http://
mambaus-sholihin.blogspot.com/2010/01/analytic-philosophyand-education.html
https://sites.google.com/site/vandyphil234g1/philosophy-of-edu
cation-an-anthology-by-randall-curren/r-s-peters--education-as-initiation
http://
dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com/2011/07/hirsts-forms-of-know
ledge.html
http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/education/thecurriculum-design-and-development-education-essay.php

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