ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses important and seminal developments in recent times that have made recent philosophy what it is. It deals with the 'ordinary language' philosophy of J. L. Austin and Gilbert Ryle, which suggests that many philosophical problems are spurious and created by a misuse of ordinary language. The chapter outlines the views of Willard Van Orman Quine and Donald Davidson, who have been hugely influential on analytical philosophy in both its methods and subjects. It looks at the influence of Thomas Kuhn in philosophy of science and the way in which it has led to a more historical approach and raised problems about the rationality of science. The chapter explains the revival of work in political philosophy in the original and substantive work of John Rawls and Robert Nozick. It looks at Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty as philosophers who would seek to subvert the philosophical tradition itself, and in so doing, some would say, threaten intellectual nihilism.
