Analytic philosophy is the leading form of philosophy in the English-speaking world. What
explains its continued success? Christoph Schuringa argues that its enduring power can only be
understood by examining its social history. Analytic philosophy tends to think of itself as
concerned with eternal questions transcending the changing scenes of history. It thinks of
itself as apolitical. This book however convincingly shows that the opposite is true. The
origins of analytic philosophy are in a set of distinct movements shaped by high-ly specific
sets of political and social forces. Only after the Second World War were these disparate
often dynamic movements joined together to make ‘analytic philosophy’ as we know it. In the
climate of McCarthyism analytic philosophy was robbed of political force. To this day
analytic philosophy is the ideology of the status quo. It may seem arcane and largely removed
from the real world but it is a crucial component in upholding liberalism through its central
role in elite educational institutions. As Schuringa concludes the apparently increasing
friendliness of analytic philosophers to rival approaches in philosophy should be understood as
a form of colonization thanks to its hegemonic status it reformats all it touches in service
of its own imperatives going so far as to colonize decolonial efforts in the discipline.
