Metaphilosophy is the study of the nature of philosophy itself: what philosophy is, what it is for, and how it should be done. Contemporary Western metaphilosophies divide, roughly, along the analytic, pragmatist and Continental traditions, each holding a different view of philosophy's proper method and aim, from logical analysis of propositions to therapeutic dissolution of confusion to phenomenological description of lived experience.
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Central QuestionWhat is philosophy, what is philosophy for, and how should philosophy be done? 1 Key DebateThe analytic-Continental methodological divide: the Analytic pioneers Russell and the early Wittgenstein held that philosophy should proceed by the analysis of propositions, using logic to disclose the deep structure of the world, and that philosophy could say little about ethics. Edmund Husserl instead developed phenomenology, aiming to make philosophy a rigorous and foundational science through the descriptive study of lived experience, a method his existential successors reworked but did not abandon. 1 Key DebateWhether philosophy aims at objective truth or at practical and social ends: later Analytic metaphilosophy held that philosophy could be pursued as a descriptive, non-revisionary metaphysics continuous with science, seeking truths about the world on a par with other inquiry. The neopragmatist Richard Rorty argued instead that philosophy has no such neutral, truth-tracking task, and that a philosopher should fashion her philosophy so as to promote her own cultural, social and political goals. 1 Metaphilosophy
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Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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1. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
entry: Metaphilosophy, Introduction
metaphilosophy being the study of the nature of philosophy
entry: Metaphilosophy, Section 1
The pioneers of the Analytic movement held that philosophy should begin with the analysis of propositions. In the hands of two of those pioneers, Russell and Wittgenstein, such analysis gives a central role to logic and aims at disclosing the deep structure of the world. But Russell and Wittgenstein thought philosophy could say little about ethics.
entry: Metaphilosophy, Section 2
Metaphilosophical views held by later Analytic philosophers include the idea that philosophy can be pursued as a descriptive but not a revisionary metaphysics and that philosophy is continuous with science... The neopragmatist Rorty goes so far as to say the philosopher should fashion her philosophy so as to promote her cultural, social, and political goals.
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