Shepherd vol 1 ebook Part 1 Introduction

Part 1: Shepherd: The First Analytic Philosopher In The History Of Philosophy?

Introduction

In part 1, I shall ask: Could Shepherd’s philosophical treatises be the first texts in the history of philosophy to clearly display an analytical approach to philosophy? I suggest that it is plausible that she is the first analytic philosopher and shall support this by putting her in the context of the extraordinary thinkers she socialised with as well as textual evidence from her treatises.

In chapter 1, I outline aspects of Shepherd’s life, especially her salon and who attended it, which I think are pertinent to understanding her philosophy and how it may have produced the right environment for her to develop an analytic approach to philosophy. In chapter 2, I explore what analytic philosophy is and that Shepherd’s works display almost all of the list of stated analytic features, including the quasi-scientific approach. I then show how Shepherd’s methodology sheds light on the methods behind some contemporary scientific discoveries. In chapters 3 and 4 I examine what circularity is, where in Shepherd’s treatises she writes about it and what this tells us about her approach and methodology. I conclude that Shepherd was extremely knowledgeable about what circularity and question begging is and how to avoid it. So I argue that it is not plausible that Shepherd would then go on to commit this logical fallacy herself.