CartThe Essence of Analytic Philosophy Instructor: Lika KarevaProgram: Critical PhilosophyDate: May 14, 21Time: 12:00-13:30 ET
DESCRIPTION: What is analytic philosophy, really? Does it have an essence or at least some stable feature that defines it? Is there such a thing as ‘analytic’ style, and how do we recognize it? The answers to these questions are ambiguous. Some blame analytic philosophy (hereafter, AP) for the lack of internal values—claiming that it is essentially asocial and apolitical— some praise it for the lack of precisely the same features. Another way to define analytic philosophy is, again, negative: it is ahistorical at its core. Even though all these characteristics are valid, it is clear that a positive characterization of AP on its own is missing. Does it have its own values, and, for that matter, history?
SESSION ONE: The purpose of this Roundtable is to synthesize a collective answer to these questions, i.e., to provide good explanations for what makes AP the very thing which it is, and hopefully, in this way, acquire its essence. To fulfill this task, we will take a look at the work of historians of philosophy as varied as Christoph Shuringa, Scott Soames, and Guillermo Rosado Haddock, whose representations are polarized both in terms of the implied constitutive values and critical approaches. This will occupy us during the first session. During this gathering, we will collectively create a diagram representing all three approaches and highlighting their virtues.
SESSION TWO: In about a week, we will gather for the second meeting to retackle the essence of AP and forge our own definition of it, not identical to any of the previously discussed representations. The outcome of two sessions will be a short programmatic text containing our definition(s) of AP, complemented by a diagram representing the variety of its historical narrativizations.
Yet some of us might object that embarking on such an inquiry is retrograde and senseless, since neorationalism has eliminated the analytic-continental distinction long ago. They may remind us of many instances of neorationalist interplay with the concepts of Wilfrid Sellars, the method of Rudolf Carnap, and even critical metaphilosophically of Ludwig Wittgenstein—all of which was done alongside the traditional engagement with German Idealist thought. However, to those objecting, still, we might say: merging analytic with continental is one task. Understanding the essence of ‘analytic’ is another.
IMAGE: Robert Seidel, Bifurcation Chamber, 2020.
Instructors’ Bio: Lika Kareva is a philosopher who specializes in analytic interpretations of Ancient Greek philosophy. She studied at the New Centre’s program of Critical Philosophy, and has a Master’s degree from The University of Oklahoma. In 2025, she defended a thesis on Negativity in Plato, according to which The Sophist puts forward a negativity-inclusive conception of language, presenting non-being in two primary senses: as statements employing negations and as false statements.
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