The Limits of Analysis

Philosophy in the twentieth century has been dominated by the urge for analysis, a methodology that is supposed to be comparable in clarity and correctness to scientific thought. In this attack on such exaggerated claims, Stanley Rosen demonstrates how analysis alone lacks the power to approach the deepest and most important philosophical questions. He thus provides us with a new and deeper understanding of the nature and limits of analytic thinking.

"A well-written, excitingly bold book." -- Alicia Roqué, Review of Metaphysics

"An ambitious examination of the role conceptual analysis plays in the philosophical enterprise. . . . Admirable and highly recommended." -- Philosophical Studies

"Ranging widely from such contemporary leading lights as Kripke and Quine back to Plato, Kant, Hegel, and even Nietzsche, while passing through topics such as the nature of a concept, essence and nonexistence, and the idea of the whole. Rosen hammers his thesis home in a variety of manners and with a variety of tools. . . . This book should be of interest to all philosophers of religion." -- David Pellauer, Religious Studies Review

"Rosen displays a remarkable breadth of knowledge in philosophy. . . . The work will be of special interest to those concerned with present-day confrontation of scientific with traditional humanist world views." -- Choice