Consensus has never come easily in philosophy. It is said that there was only a single occasion when three of the most famous philosophers of the last century, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, were in the same room. Very soon an argument arose and Wittgenstein waved a poker in Popper’s face defying him to name one moral rule. Popper replied “Not to threaten visiting speakers with pokers.” At that, Russell told his former student to put down the poker, and Wittgenstein stormed out.
No doubt this was a better outcome than a poke in the eye, but it is suggestive of something deeply dysfunctional in modern philosophy!
Analytic philosophy is an extensive 20th century philosophic tradition characterised by logic and clarity of thinking, analysis of propositions, precision of language and avoidance of presuppositions. The work of Frege and Bertrand Russell prepared the ground for Wittgenstein. Analytic philosophy has been very important because it represents a back-to-basics movement, a search for truth and certainty in some form or other. However, in its rarefied forms, analytic philosophy has been preoccupied with how language shapes and distorts meaning itself – and not much else.
Disarmed of metaphysics, the defence of the person was founded on the ultimately illogical assertion that rationality and freedom emerge from the determinism of matter. As a result, analytical philosophy seems to have painted itself into a corner.
My pilgrimage however introduced me to one of Oxford’s greatest daughters, Elizabeth Anscombe, Wittgenstein’s straight-talking pupil. In contrast to some in her profession she proclaimed, ‘Philosophy is thinking about the most difficult and ultimate questions.’ As a Catholic convert and mother of seven, she was a woman of courage and conviction.
On my return home I have delved into Elizabeth Anscombe and I believe she can lead us out of the current cul-de-sac of determinism.
(1) _ Philosophy must rediscover the connection between truth and personal virtue._ Anscombe argued in her ground breaking 1958 paper ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ that, without a notion of human flourishing founded on virtue, ethics is wasted effort. She said we must ‘stop doing moral philosophy until we get our psychology straight’.
(2) _ Forget the ghost in the machine, the famous summary of Descartes’ view of how a human being works._ Philosophy must once and for all discard Cartesian ways of thinking about matter. Anscombe insisted, ‘The divide between matter and mind was drawn differently by the ancients and medievals from the way it is drawn in modern times. So far as I know, the source of the new way of drawing the line is Descartes…’ She goes on to nominate the very passage where the mistake was made in his Second Meditation.
(3) Philosophy must avoid a priori _ atheism and materialism._ Anscombe wrote, “Analytic philosophy is about styles of argument and investigation, and is compatible with belief in God, and Christian belief in God.” In this light it seems ironic that Peter Hacker, Simon Blackburn, Raymond Tallis and David Papineau appear to have opted for a priori atheism, when an a priori stance at its heart is non-analytic.
(4) _ Analytic philosophy must concern itself to seek truth wherever it is to be found._ By her life’s work Anscombe demonstrated that it is possible for analytic philosophy to build bridges to Aristotelian realism and to ethics. Together with her philosopher-husband Peter Geach she is credited with giving inspiration to the field of study known as Analytic Thomism.