9892 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Reductionism, Rudolf Carnap, Moritz Schlick
28 Jun 2018
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LECTURE 9: WEEK 10
Analytic Philosophy
Strengths: focus on importance of language
Weaknesses: logical positivism contradicts “language games”; too limited to meet the demands
of a changing world
Seek to analyse language, concepts, and methods/ find clarification; use logic/scientific
knowledge to understand language
A lot of language isn’t clear, it is critical that we understand what we mean when we use words
Analytic sentences: self-evident, there’s nothing to analyse i.e. all squares have 4 sides (trivial)
Synthetic sentences: these require investigation for their confirmation (informative)
True role of philosophy is critical clarification, clarify ideas rather than categorise them
Language problems are only one part of the education picture
Mistakes in education cannot necessarily be changed by language clarification, language helps
us to formulate social and educational policy
Helping students to clarify what they need to know and become acutely aware of language and
its potential
Clarified and more meaningful approaches in education
Educators need to be aware that language is value laden and emotive in nature (hidden
meanings/inflections/emphasis)
Curriculum should undergo serious analytic study
Turned toward examining the ways people discuss and describe their conceptions of things and
ideas
Moore:
Primarily concerned with things people say in ordinary life
He analysed words like “good” “know” and “real” and he believed people have an idea of the
meaning of “good” before they even used it
Accused philosophers of adding to the confusion when they took words away from their
common, ordinary usage and used the words in abstract ways
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Document Summary
Weaknesses: logical positivism contradicts language games ; too limited to meet the demands of a changing world. Seek to analyse language, concepts, and methods/ find clarification; use logic/scientific knowledge to understand language. A lot of language isn"t clear, it is critical that we understand what we mean when we use words. Analytic sentences: self-evident, there"s nothing to analyse i. e. all squares have 4 sides (trivial) Synthetic sentences: these require investigation for their confirmation (informative) True role of philosophy is critical clarification, clarify ideas rather than categorise them. Language problems are only one part of the education picture. Mistakes in education cannot necessarily be changed by language clarification, language helps us to formulate social and educational policy. Helping students to clarify what they need to know and become acutely aware of language and its potential. Clarified and more meaningful approaches in education. Educators need to be aware that language is value laden and emotive in nature (hidden meanings/inflections/emphasis)
