ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines one or more of the main tradition-shaping interpretations of analytic philosophy. It observes that Frege was not concerned about Idealism the way Moore and Russell were, and hence that the revolt against Idealism was a purely British phenomenon. The book explores the complex relationship of Wittgenstein to the evolving interpretations of analytic philosophy itself, but it is the later Wittgenstein of the Philosophical Investigations that is in view. It also examines Ernest Nagel's turn to logical empiricism in order to illustrate how "prior support for naturalism" among some American philosophers "helped logical empiricist commitments to find a foothold in the United States". The book argues that Quine is best understood as part of, and indeed the culmination of, the broader tradition of scientific philosophy.
