Traditional and Analytical Philosophy: Lectures on the Philosophy of Language

Ernst Tugendhat trained in the phenomenological and hermeneutical tradition of Heidegger, then came to believe that philosophy is best done analytically, through close attention to language. These lectures, first published in German in 1976 and translated into English in 1982, grew directly from that change of conviction. They bring the methods of linguistic analysis to bear on some of the oldest and most persistent questions in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

What gives the book its particular interest is the vantage point of someone who knew the continental tradition from the inside and chose to test its concerns against analytical rigour. It is an influential and demanding work for students and readers who want to see how the two great strands of modern philosophy might speak to one another.