The Age of Analysis Summary

  • Last updated on March 25, 2021
The Age of Analysis is a book in the Mentor Philosophers series. It is subtitled 20th Century Philosophers selected, with introduction and interpretative commentary by Morton White. Morton White is a Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Studies, and is described as a holistic pragmatist.

Summary

The book surveys 20th century philosophy by presenting the writings of various recognized philosophers from Europe and America. Each selection is introduced by Morton White. White views 20th century philosophy as being divided between those who decompose philosophy into small pieces to put it on to a scientific footing and those who seek one over-arching idea to found all their beliefs. White sees pragmatists as standing in the middle. The book is thus organized into three sections, one for each perspective.

Chapter 1 - The Decline and Fall of the Absolute

White's introduction to the material and description of the layout of the book is couched in a review of Hegel's philosophy and a summary of how various philosophers reacted to his work.

Hegel's grand system envisions the world as spirit, also called the absolute, with purpose and direction. This grand system was seen by his followers as a unification of science and religion, for the absolute could easily be read as God and the system Hegel proposed was seen as a foundation for science beyond the mindlessness of Newtonian mechanics. The absolute

provided ... a rich, highly complex philosophical system that covered every corner of the universe with a deep, rich velvet, soft to the touch and warming. (p.15)

The main schools of philosophy in the twentieth century arise out of reaction to Hegel. Kierkegaard's rejected Hegel's vision and became the founding father of Existentialism. Communism took Hegel's dialectic idealism and converted it to dialectic materialism. The logical positivist were founded by philosophers, like Russell and Moore, who were Hegelians in their early academic careers.

White arranges his selections of each philosopher's writings into three sections. The first section is devoted to those who like Hegel try to understand philosophy as a effort to grasp one big idea. The next section presents the works of pragmatists, who though influenced by Hegel to varying degrees, see philosophy as a collection of many ideas and methods, and focus on the more immediate questions facing humanity. White views the pragmatists as standing between the "big idea" philosophers, and the logical positivists and analysts. The last section is for those writers who reject Hegel as not false, but meaningless. These writers are committed to setting philosophy on a scientific footing, a process that rejects grand schemes.

Chapter 2 - The Revival of Realism and Common Sense: G.E. Moore

White describes how Moore and Russell followed similar intellectual paths, first as Hegelian idealists, then rejecting it for "common sense". This philosophy has come to be called realism, and although it has a component that most would agree was common sense, there is also some portions of it that could be called idealism, such as the idea of universals. Moore is a philosopher's philosopher, but his writing is so clear that he was influential with many non-philophers. J.M. Keynes, for example, very much approved of Moore's straight forward style. White selects a section of Moore's lectures delivered in 1910-1911, and published in 1953 as Chapter 1 of Some Main Problems of Philosophy.
Categories: Non Fiction