Analytic Method

Glenn: Analytic method concentrates on the connection between language and

reality. Analysis of language and concepts is central to analytic philosophy.The term
analytic philosophy was introduced in the late 1940s. It stood for the radically new
approach to philosophy dominating discussion in Great Britain and the U.S.

Miles: An analytic philosopher’s main concern is to clarify the meaning of language

and the concepts we use. This method analyzes and clarifies everything in everyday life
through looking at language, concepts, and phenomena. Which means, the
philosophers aim to discover truth and knowledge and not on spiritual and moral.

Edelyn: In analytical tradition, this method must be executed through the use of formal
logic and mathematics, there must be clarity and rigor of thought, the presence of
methodological awareness and consciousness of assumption. This is in determining that
the ideas and theories we think of are critically calculated and the reasoning we have,
is honing a sense of enlightenment and understanding.

Christiene: Critics of analytic philosophers believe that a philosopher’s values play a role
in analysis which can produce bias which makes it hard to determine the features of
this method because the characteristics may be different depending on the
philosopher. It is fundamentally opposed to British Idealism, Phenomenology,
Existentialism, and Postmodern Philosophy.

Danielle: Let us now go to the individuals who influenced this method of philosophy.
Analytic philosophy is usually dated from the time when two of its major figures,
Bertrand Russell and George Edward Moore rebelled against an anti-empiricist idealism
that had temporarily captured the English philosophical sense.

Edelyn: Bertrand Russell is one of the founders of Analytic philosophy. According to

Russell, it is the philosopher’s job to discover a logically ideal language—a language
that will exhibit the nature of the world in such a way that we will not be misled by the
accidental, imprecise surface structure of natural language. This indicates that natural
language is not deep enough to explain the world without some misinterpretation
happening. Russell believed that reality itself is analyzable and can be broken down
further for clarification. He concentrated on the connection between language and
reality.

Chesca: Alfred North Whitehead is also one of the founders of philosophy. He believed
in the importance and power of creativity in life. According to him, education is the
necessary marriage of thought with action. He emphasizes the importance of
remembering that a pupil’s mind is a growing organism. It is not a box to be ruthlessly
packed with alien ideas. He believes that education’s purpose is to stimulate and guide
each student’s self development.

Myzie: Ludwig Wittgenstein also influenced analytic philosophy. He believed philosophy

to be a critique of language. He focused heavily on logic, language, and metaphysics.
He found a way to tie logic to metaphysics over language.

Vic: It is also important to recognize the power of words. What gives power to words is its
meaning, how it is defined academically and socially. It has the power to make or
break a person, establishment, or business. Some words in some language or culture
may mean something completely different in another culture. So we have to take
culture and society into context when we use words.