Method
Conceptual Analysis
Classification
- Method family
- Analytical
- Domains
- Aesthetics, Epistemology
Overview
Conceptual analysis clarifies a concept by proposing an account of its conditions or structure and testing that account against cases and objections.
Purpose. The method makes a disputed concept precise enough to evaluate, revise, or divide. Here it names definition- and case-based analysis; close study of ordinary linguistic use is represented separately as Ordinary-Language Analysis.
Characteristic operations
- Identify the target concept: State which concept is under analysis and what work it is meant to do.
- Propose an account: Formulate candidate conditions, components, or relations.
- Test cases: Compare clear, borderline, and imagined cases against the account.
- Revise the proposal: Narrow, broaden, or divide the account in response to counterexamples.
Used by traditions
Applied to questions
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Analysis, §6 and supplement 'Conceptions of Analysis in Analytic Philosophy'
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Definition of Art
- Edmund L. Gettier, 'Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?', Analysis 23 (1963), 121–123 (counterexamples to the justified-true-belief analysis)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Analysis of Knowledge