History of Analytic Philosophy

We have a broad range of research on the history of analytic philosophy in our department.

About us

Our work in the history of analytic philosophy spans early analytic philosophy, the Vienna Circle, the history of mid- to late-20th Century analytic philosophy, and the contribution of women to logic and analytic metaphysics. Staff have recently published on, for example, Ayer, Carnap, Danto, Feigl, Jones, Ladd-Franklin, Lewis, Neurath, Quine, Ramsey, Schlick and Stebbing, on a huge range of topics including the mind-body problem, other minds, politics in the Left Vienna Circle, universals, protocol sentences, and the philosophy of history.

The Department is home to the Forum for Quine and the History of Analytic Philosophy and recently hosted a research project on the role of David Lewis in the development of 20th-Century analytic philosophy.

From 2016 to 2024, the department was home to the journal Analysis, one of longest running and most important journals in the analytic tradition. David Liggins was an Editor of Analysis; from 2017 to 2021, he was the sole Editor. He is now a member of the Analysis Committee.

We welcome expressions of interest from prospective Master's and PhD students, and from postdoctoral researchers who would like to come to Manchester to work on the history of analytic philosophy; current PhD students working in this area are listed in the 'People' section below. Take a look at the Department's page for prospective postgraduate researchers if you are interested in applying for a PhD, or find out about our MA in Philosophy programme.

For general queries about the history of analytic philosophy at Manchester, please contact Prof. Fraser MacBride.

Upcoming events can be found on our events page.

Projects and events

Our most recent project, The Age of Metaphysical Revolution: David Lewis and his Place in 20th Century Philosophy, ran from 2016 to 2019 and was funded by the AHRC. The project treated Lewis as a historical figure, tracing the influences on the origins and development of his thought in a monograph co-authored by the project team (Helen Beebee, Fraser MacBride, Frederique Janssen-Lauret and Anthony Fisher). The project website includes information about Lewis and publications arising from the project (including the two-volume Philosophical Letters of David K. Lewis), video podcasts of several of the talks from our end-of-project conference (including, e.g., Angelika Kratzer, Frank Jackson and Jonathan Schaffer), some of Lewis's letters to other philosophers, links to other Lewis resources, etc.