A century after its inception, analytic philosophy continues to clarify issues through argumentation, analysis, and logical rigor—and to parse out the phenomenon of language. This program scrutinizes the founding of analytic philosophy, the rise of logical positivism, the rejection of metaphysics, and the advent of linguistic philosophy through Russell’s Principia Mathematica, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Willard Van Orman Quine’s “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” the Vienna Circle’s manifesto, and other seminal works. Penetrating commentary is provided by Harvard University’s Hilary Putnam, Rutgers University’s Colin McGinn, and USC’s Scott Soames. (49 minutes)