Share

Buy New

$30.00

List Price: $55.00
Save: $25.00 (45%)

$30.00 + $3.99 shipping

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by Driftwin Books.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

This item does not ship to France. Please check other sellers who may ship internationally.

Ship to:

Buy Used

$19.95

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Used: Good | Details

Sold by The Best Books_33

Fulfilled by Amazon

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$40.26
+ Free Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Add to Cart

$36.59
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: awesomebooksusa

Add to Cart

$55.00
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: Amazon.com

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Reason & Analysis (Paul Carus Lectures) Paperback – December 19, 1964

by Brand Blanshard (Author)

10 customer reviews

See all 6 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

"Please retry"

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$30.00

Unknown Binding

"Please retry"

—

—

With impeccable clarity and elegance, Blanshard presents a fair-minded yet withering characterization of the schools of philosophy dominant in the Anglophone world from the 1920s to the 1960s: logical atomism, logical positivism, and 'ordinary language' philosophy. Most of the objectionable features which Blanshard attacked have now disappeared from analytic philosophy, in part due to the influence of this book. Yet his acute observations retain their freshness and relevance.

Reason & Analysis (Paul Carus Lectures)

$30.00 + $3.99 shipping Only 1 left in stock - order soon. Ships from and sold by Driftwin Books.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

8

Paperback
$10.50

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Reason and Belief Hardcover

Brand Blanshard

2
12 offers from $80.00

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

With impeccable clarity and elegance, Blanshard presents a fair-minded yet withering characterization of the schools of philosophy dominant in the Anglophone world from the 1920s to the 1960s: logical atomism, logical positivism, and 'ordinary language' philosophy. Most of the objectionable features which Blanshard attacked have now disappeared from analytic philosophy, in part due to the influence of this book. Yet his acute observations retain their freshness and relevance.

Product details

Series: Paul Carus Lectures (Book 12)
Paperback: 504 pages
Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company (December 19, 1964)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0875481124
ISBN-13: 978-0875481128
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 10 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,400,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5781 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars

3 star (0%)

2 star (0%)

1 star (0%)

Write a customer review

See all 10 customer reviews

Rated by customers interested in

What's this?

Politics & Government Books

4.0 out of 5 stars

Violins

4.0 out of 5 stars

String Instruments

4.0 out of 5 stars

Is this feature helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Abolaji Ogunshola

Incredible, stylish AND lucid scholarship

December 7, 2001

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Brand Blanshard's work in defence of Reason is incredible. This book was published in 1962, and, given its length (especially at a time when there were no word processors), must have been in the works for some time before then.
Blanshard mostly takes on the philosophical schools of logical positivism and linguistic analysis in this volume, and is an opponent of any school of thought that denies or subverts the role of reason and logic in the acquisition of knowledge.
So what makes this book so good? It is a perfect example of scholarship (similar to George Reisman's "Capitalism"), given its topic. What do I mean by perfect?
1. The author gives a historical overview of the material to be presented. This allows a person to place ideas and positions in
thier historical context, and to understand the nature of the
debate that has preceded the material to be discussed.
2. The author explains the position of the viewpoint that he is in disagreement with. He cites references and quotes individuals.
3. The author demolishes the arguments of the opponents to the greatest extent he probably can, and in a systematic way. This ensures that all variants of the doctrine he is against are taken care of, and that any attempt to resurrect the doctrine in the future can be addressed with the arguments that he has already proposed. He totally refutes logical atomism and other aspects of logical positivism, and shows that linguistic analysis, as well as logical positivism, is self refuting.
4. The author then realizes that it is not enough to destroy - one must also replace the edifice that one has destroyed with a better one, or garbage might find its way onto the site where the old edifice once stood. The author outlines the his view of reason and aspects of it in the final chapters of the book.
A note for Objectivists: Brand Blanshard also rejected the Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy in this volume and was legendary enough to merit a place in the Library of Living Philosophers series.
It is very puzzling (and a statement about what is going on in the world today) that Blanshard's works are mostly out of print, while people who could not explain thier positions with the clarity and consistency that he did are worshipped as philosophical legends. He dissects and makes thorough mincemeat of Wittgenstein's writings, showing that they are anything BUT logical(ly consistent). However, I can't find Blanshard's books in any local bookstores, but I can find loads of Wittgenstein's writings.
You don't have to agree with everything in this book to gain from it. Nothing is swept under the rug, and it is quite possible to honestly disagree with some points of view. However, any flaws in the book are unlikely to be attributed to wilful dishonesty on the part of the author by the reader, but will definitely vary, depending on the view point of the reader on certain philosophical issues. However, anybody committed to rationality will find a lot that is good in this book.
It is a good volume and there is lot to be gained by anyone who wants to investigate the lines along which thinking is done.

0Comment 35 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Brand Blanshard book

March 23, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Brand Blanshard was a great American philosopher of the twentieth century. I will buy any of his books which come on sale.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?

Simply brilliant.

February 24, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Blanshard's weaves his way through philosophical puzzles the way a terrific story teller tells a great tale. He has you sitting at the edge of your seat. He's simply brilliant!

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Ross James Browne

Very Convincing

April 4, 2003

Format: Paperback

This is one of the most painstakingly argued philosophies I have ever encountered. Blanshard is obsessive-compulsive in his maniacal destruction of the philosophies of Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russel. Brand Blanshard is a man on the warpath; he will not be satisfied until every aspect of the aforementioned philosophies has been ground into dust. And indeed they are ground into dust. I do not see how anyone could be taken in by the concepts of Russel and Wittgenstein after reading this book.
All of this is not to say that Blanshard is a parasitic writer. There is more to this book than simply the destruction of other peoples' life's work. However, after reading _Reason and Analysis_, I realize that I have not seen this many instances of abuse of a corpse since the infamous "tri-state crematory scandal" in north Georgia. Blanshard simply will not leave these poor guys alone! Wittgenstein has rolled over in his grave so many times that he's gonna need to have his tires rotated. Anyway, this does not really detract from the book as a whole. It is actually a very valuble resource in terms of getting up to date with recent philosophical movements. Blanshard does an excellent job at summarizing previous movements, to the extent that you could get by without reading any of the authors he mentions. Blanshard's detailed synopses of these philosophies is almost as good as reading the original works themselves. A book like this can save you the trouble of having to read many early to mid-twentieth century philosophers.
To summarize, the factual content of this book is nearly inarguable. Blanshard's arguments are very convincing and very meticulous. Overall, this work is utterly fascinating, well written, lucid, and clear. But I will leave the reader with this one last piece of advice: ONLY READ THE FIRST 200 PAGES. That's all you need to get the gist of Blanshard's philosophy. Once you get past the first 200 pages, Blanshard seems to do nothing other than give endless additional examples to uphold an argument that was already convincing enough. The argument had been completely outlined by page 200, and meticulously argued to the point of catharsis. Those who read further must be devastated adherents of Wittgenstein who can only watch with shock and horror as their life's studies go up in smoke. I will not deduct a star for the run-on ending of this book simply because the first 200 pages are so spectacular and so potent that nothing could possibly detract from these initial arguments. This book is easily worth the price of admission ten times over simply for these first 200 pages - I'm only trying to save you time by warning you about the redundncy of the latter part of this book. So by all means go ahead and buy _Reason and Analysis_ - with my condolences to the adherents of Wittgenstein and Russell.

0Comment 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Most recent customer reviews

rationalism versus analytic philosophy.

And rationalism wins.

Rationalism has endured a storm of sustained attacks throughout the twentieth century.Read more

Published on May 30, 2005

A Voice of Reason

Gordon H. Clark once wrote that Brand Blanshard was the most important American philosopher of twentieth century.Read more

Published on October 20, 2004

Abolaji Ogunshola

Amending a statement that I made in my earlier review

I claimed in my last review that Blanshard rejects the "Analytic-Synthetic" dichotomy. This is not totally true - he simply clarifies what Kant did intuitively (and...Read more

Published on December 8, 2001

Excellent critique of Logical Positivism

There is much that can be said for this book. It is well written, plausibly argued, and scrupulously fair-minded in its judgments.Read more

Published on May 2, 2001

Blanshard's best known work in defense of reason

In this his best-known work, rationalist philosopher Brand Blanshard mounts a thorough defense of reason against an onslaught of twentieth-century attacks.Read more

Published on December 26, 1998

A customer

A brilliant defense of the role of reason in philosophy.

This is a truly remarkable book. The clearest and most accessible writer the field of philosophy has ever produced takes on what has come to be known as...Read more

Published on December 14, 1998

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Reason & Analysis (Paul Carus Lectures)

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Reason & Analysis (Paul Carus Lectures)

Set up a giveaway

English United States

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2017, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates