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In recent decades European thought has been subjected to at least two forms of negative or restrictive assessment of its tradition, or of a part of it. This criticism has derived largely from a fundamental misunderstanding, and often from ignorance of the sources. The misunderstanding concerns the purely analytic invention of a "Continental' philosophy (usually made to coincide with modern "German' philosophy represented by Kant, idealism, Heidegger and derivations of his thought) which has been accused of an ">irrationalism and an obscurity, although these charges have not always well argued with regard to individual authors and themes. This invention, which has often displayed markedly ideological features, has counterposed "Continental' philosophy with a prevalently Anglo-American school of thought which, since the specific interpretation given to Frege by Carnap and Russell, has developed a strongly logical-linguistic body of thought in the twentieth century. Dummett's thesis that analytic thought has a partly "Austrian' origin in not only Frege but also Meinong is no exception, given the interpretation and analytic developments of Meinong's thought.¹

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-9656-5_1

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