Conceptual Creativity in Philosophy and Logic

This chapter focuses on 'conceptual creativity'. Conceptualization is fundamental to philosophy, which might even be called a 'conceptual science'. It is in the various processes of conceptualization, concept-formation, and conceptual change that some of the deepest philosophical questions arise. The theory of descriptions, first articulated by Bertrand Russell in 'On Denoting' in 1905, is rightly regarded as a paradigm of analytic philosophy. It has been characterized as exemplifying 'interpretive analysis'. The most significant feature of Russell's theory, in this respect, is the way in which it 'analyzes away' the definite description 'the present King of France'. The chapter discusses some of the key conceptual developments in the creation of modern logic and analytic philosophy. Conceptual creativity was not just manifested in the 'Copernican revolution' that gave rise to Kant's critical philosophy. Immaneul Kant's system of transcendental idealism is a trickier case, as scholars have argued about this ever since Kant's critical turn.