Redefining philosophical analysis: Frege, Russell, and logicism

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the contributions made to semantic theory by Frege and Russell. Both men began their careers as mathematicians who were interested in clarifying the logical foundations of their discipline. Toward this end, they approached their task analytically: they sought to completely and rigorously systematize mathematics, leaving no principle unestablished and no term undefined. In their effort to clarify the structure of certain thoughts and propositions, they developed some original tools of semantic analysis. Although logicism, their theory of mathematics, gradually unravelled, their analytical method has influenced many succeeding philosophers, and the semantic techniques they introduced have changed the face of the philosophy of language. As such, an understanding of the issues in which these thinkers were interested will afford a better understanding of contemporary philosophy.; In this study of their philosophical works I have tried to draw attention both to the aspects of their thought that have greatly affected the course of philosophy and to those aspects about which most of their successors agree that they were wrong. I have made an effort to situate in context the issues with which they struggled, to present their views in reference to what was happening in mathematics, logic, and philosophy at that time. Overall, this thesis is a discussion of how it came to be that their methods and ideas, that their development of mathematical logic as the principal tool in semantic analysis, drastically altered both philosophy of language and formal logic.