G.F. Stout and the Psychological Origins of Analytic Philosophy - (History of Analytic Philosophy) by Kenneth A Loparo (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The philosopher and psychologist G.F. Stout was the teacher of Moore and Russell around 1894. This book shows that Stout's ideas have played a role in Moore and Russell's development from their early idealism towards analytic realism, where Stout's ideas often find their origin in early phenomenology.

The theory of judgement and proposition that Moore and Russell defended around 1900 has to be understood against the background of a one-dimensional semantics, and the question what guarantees the objectivity of thought and judgement. Both aspects have their origin in Stout's psychological account of judgement and the way he distinguishes between act, content and object. Stout is also of interest for his critique of Russell's theory of descriptions and the multiple relation theory of judgement. The book deals with topics relevant for philosophy today, such as tropes and predication, the problem of error, psychologism, and the relation between question and judgement.

Review Quotes

"This book is one recent product of her work on this subject, which first saw light as a dissertation, then in a series of papers, and now appears in a revised and expanded version of her early work for the History of Analytic Philosophy series ... . The perspective van der Schaar brings here is ... a valuable addition to the detailed account of the early development of analytic philosophy at Cambridge." (Consuelo Preti, Journal of the History of Analytical Philosophy, Vol. 4 (3), 2016)

About the Author

Maria Van Der Schaar is a lecturer at the Institute for Philosophy, Leiden University, The Netherlands. Her work regards the philosophy and history of logic with a special interest in the theory of judgement and assertion. She is the editor of Judgement and the Epistemic Foundation of Logic.