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the history of analytic philosophy movement exploded onto the philosophic scene in 1990 with the publication of Peter Hylton’s study Russell, Idealism, and the Emergence of Analytic Philosophy. Though the movement had existed at least a decade before that, it was then that it reached critical mass. A flood of works in the subject quickly followed Hylton’s 1990 book, and history of analytic philosophy emerged as a prominent part of contemporary philosophy. One problem with the early work in this new field was that it did not often ask what analytic philosophy itself was, but assumed that this was already well known. As a result, these works frequently ended up uncritically fleshing out old stories about the history and nature of analytic philosophy with new details, rather than revising our pictures of what analytic philosophy is and was. However, this shortcoming of much of the new history soon became apparent, and toward the end of the 90s, historians of analytic philosophy increasingly began asking the question: What is analytic philosophy? Today there are a respectable number of studies on just this question and interest in the subject is still growing. the preston challenge: In this issue of the Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly, aaron preston surveys the recent historical work on the nature of analytic philosophy and draws the controversial but plausible conclusion that there is not now, nor has there ever been any such school, movement, or tradition of thought as analytic philosophy, and that the idea that any such philosophy ever existed is an illusion. Call this “The Preston Challenge”. If you think there was one particular kind of philosophy that was analytic philosophy, Aaron Preston would like you to please tell him what it was, preferably defining the entity in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions. He says it can’t be done. also in this issue, we review michael beaney’s study of philosophical analysis. Beaney is writing a lengthy and ambitious survey of the various ideas of philosophical analysis that have existed from Plato to Quine and beyond. A first report of his study exists as a long entry by him on “Analysis” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and a book by him on the subject is near completion. While Beaney’s Stanford article on analysis surveys the idea from Plato to the present, it focuses on analysis as it was conceived by 20th century analytic philosophy, and so has attracted much attention among historians of analytic philosophy. Beaney’s work is one of the most ambitious attempts in the field to date to say what analysis is. In it, he describes the various types of philosophical analysis that have existed throughout the history of philosophy using descriptions of his own design of these different types of philosophical analysis. According to our review, sometimes his descriptions work and sometimes they don’t. once again, ray perkins selects and introduces a letter to the editor by Russell. This issue’s letter was written to the New York Times 6 weeks before the 1955 announcement of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Though unpublished at the time, the letter has recently been published in Russell’s Collected Papers. In the letter, Russell reaffirms his commitment not just to the abolition of nuclear weapons but more broadly to the abolition of war.
In Society News, tim madigan shares his memories of paul edwards, recently deceased honorary member of the Bertrand Russell Society and editor of the 1967 Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is one of the monuments of 20th c. philosophy. Also in Society News, peter stone reviews warren allen smith’s new book Gossip from Across the Pond. And rounding out the Quarterly, this issue’s installment of the Traveler’s Diary reports on the BRS session at the last Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association.
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