Full Idea
For Moore and Russell analysis is not - as is commonly understood now - a linguistic activity, but an ontological one. To analyse a proposition is not to investigate language, but to carve up the world so that it begins to make some sort of sense.
Gist of Idea
Analysis for Moore and Russell is carving up the world, not investigating language
Source
report of G.E. Moore (The Nature of Judgement [1899]) by Ray Monk - Bertrand Russell: Spirit of Solitude Ch.4
Book Reference
Monk,Ray: 'Bertrand Russell: Spirit of Solitude' [Vintage 1997], p.117
A Reaction
A thought dear to my heart. The twentieth century got horribly side-tracked into thinking that ontology was an entirely linguistic problem. I suggest that physicists analyse physical reality, and philosophers analyse abstract reality.