History of Analytic Philosophy

PIs: Annalisa Coliva, Eva Picardi
AIs: Marilena Andronico, Alberto Emiliani, Wolfgang Huemer, Elisabetta Sacchi, Andrea Sereni
PhD and Master students: Delia Belleri, Beatrice Collina, Filippo Ferrari, Antonio Ferro, Alessia Marabini, Paolo Maffezioli, Giovanni Mascaretti, Fabio Minocchio, Sara Neva, Alessia Pasquali, Iryna Sivertsava.
External Researchers: Francesco Berto, Daniele Mezzadri, Tito Magri, Marco Panza, Ugo Zilioli
 
Title of the project: The forefathers of analytic philosophy
 
Scientific aim of the project
The project in History of Analytic Philosophy will focus on the forefathers of the analytic tradition, in particular Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein. It will comprise three main subthemes.

1. Philosophy of mathematics (Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein): attention will be devoted to Frege's and Russell's work on the foundations of mathematics, as well as to Wittgenstein's approach to the topic.
2. The unity of the proposition (Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein): attention will be devoted to Frege's, Russell's and the early Wittgenstein's approach to the problem of the unity of the proposition and the related issues of logical form and predication.
3. Scepticism and the epistemology of the mind (Moore and Wittgenstein): we will consider the implications of both Moore's and Wittgenstein's work with respect to the problem of external world scepticism, as well as the relevance of Wittgenstein's later reflections for the epistemology of mind.

 
Methodology
In the second semester of the academic year 2008-2009 the History of Analytic Philosophy group will meet only for a series of research events and for the discussion of research papers by members of the group. In the first semester of the academic year 2009-2010 the History of Analytic Philosophy group will meet on a more regular basis mostly to discuss research papers by members of the group, as well as by invited speakers.
 
Expected results
Research: to foster individual and joint publications in peer-reviewed international journals, as well as the publication of books on the themes researched with established international publishers.
Educational:

• the project will give Master and PhD students a chance to study some of the main authors and themes in the history of analytic philosophy, which, nowadays, are of special interest to the philosophical community. They will also have a chance to familiarise themselves with discussion in this area of philosophy;
• it will lead to PhD theses for those students primarily enrolled within this project;

NB It merits note that the themes on which the present project will focus bear strong relations to the ones researched in the other main projects of the Research Centre. It will thus give students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of those themes by looking more closely at their development within the analytic tradition.
 
Internationalization
We aim to create collaborations with similarly oriented research groups and, in particular, with the various Wittgenstein Societies both in Europe and world-wide.