History of Late Analytic Philosophy

Over the last thirty years historical attention has been directed toward analytic philosophy. Yet this historiographical perspective mainly focuses on the origins of analytic philosophy or on the central decades of the 20th century. By contrast, a proper historical investigation of late analytic philosophy – analytic philosophy in the last forty years – is greatly needed. This special issue of Philosophical Inquiries is intended to be a stimulus for such an investigation. The issue includes a series of interviews with contemporary philosophers – Thomas Baldwin, Michael Beaney, Cora Diamond, Han-Johann Glock, Matthew Haug, Cheryl Misak, Philip Pettit, Nicholas Rescher, John Skorupski, Brian Weatherson, Timothy Williamson, Jonathan Wolff – based on a fixed set of questions: (1) What are the main philosophical and metaphilosophical similarities and differences between early analytic philosophy and late analytic philosophy? (2) Is it possible to identify a mainstream in late analytic philosophy? If so, what are its main (cultural, ideological, philosophical, methodological, metaphilosophical) features? (3) What are the main critical and controversial aspects of late analytic philosophy? In addition to five articles, which investigate the topic under discussion from widely different points of view, the issue also includes the first English translation of the “Discussion générale” of the fourth Colloque philosophique de Royaumont (1958), accompanied by an introduction by Mathieu Marion.