Logic and ontology in analytic philosophy

Abstract

Although in recent years analytical philosophy has sought to take up once again some of the themes of classical philosophy — for example, the Aristotelian definition of ontology — it nevertheless identifies philosophy with the analysis of language, with the result that the aristotelian terms are given a different sense. The historical roots of this reduction are found in logical positivism, in which philosophy is transformed into an activity of clarifying language, and the assertions of metaphysics are denied meaning. But such an effort, instead of eliminating metaphysics, merely represents the old ontological problems under distinct formulations. Therefore, in many cases analytical philosophers have become the linguistic counterparts of the old metaphysicians that they initially wished to combat.