Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth-Century Nonfiction and Philosophy

Analytic philosophy refers to a school of philosophy that grew in England during the early part of the twentieth century, thanks to thinkers such as Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore. Analytical philosophy is so-called because of its focus on logical clarification, an analysis of logic itself, and the positing of logical problems. Analytical philosophy, in contrast to so-called Continental philosophy, also rejects grand sweeping philosophical systems or theories and focuses on the small details of philosophical problems.

Charles Sanders Peirce is largely credited with developing and defining pragmatism in the late nineteenth century, and fittingly was a chemist. Pragmatists described thought not as mirroring reality, but as instead being used to fully predict and plan in problem solving. Peirce's ideas about pragmatism were picked up and built on by early-twentieth-century American thinkers like John Dewey and William James.