How did analytic philosophy develop from British empiricism?

Analytic philosophy emerged at the turn of the 20th century as a reaction against the absolute idealism that had temporarily dominated English philosophy, representing a return to the long-standing tradition of British empiricism.12

Figures such as Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore spearheaded this shift, rejecting the idealist view that the physical world was merely a world of appearances. This movement reclaimed the empiricist commitment to commonsense beliefs and the use of scientific methods to investigate the world.32

While early empiricists like John Locke and David Hume often treated philosophy as a form of introspective psychology, 20th-century analytic philosophers diverged by integrating formal logic into their methodology. This development led to two primary branches:13
* Formalism: Influenced by Russell, this tradition views philosophy as a deductive, a priori enterprise that utilizes technical logical tools to clarify problems.3
* Informalism: Inspired by Moore, this approach emphasizes the close examination of language and concepts to resolve philosophical puzzles, often defending commonsense views against skepticism.3

Despite these methodological shifts, analytic philosophy maintains the empiricist insistence that justified beliefs about the world are grounded in observation rather than purely metaphysical speculation.12