This course will introduce cadets to a representative sample major of figures and topics which have set the stage for understanding contemporary Philosophy in the so-called Analytic Tradition. Major figures include Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Moore, the philosophers of the Vienna Circle, and American philosophers such as Quine, Putnam, Davidson and Kripke. Topics include the ideal of a logically perfect language, meaning and reference, the nature of truth, the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements, the common sense analysis of metaphysical concepts, and the rule-centered social nature of language. As appropriate, leading figures and ideas drawn from Continental Philosophy will be introduced.
