Editing Metaphilosophy (section)

==Terminology==
The designations ''metaphilosophy'' and ''philosophy of philosophy'' have a variety of meanings, sometimes taken to be synonyms, and sometimes seen as distinct.

[[Morris Lazerowitz]] claims to have coined the term 'metaphilosophy' around 1940 and used it in print in 1942.<ref name=Lazerowitz>{{cite journal |author=Lazerowitz, M. |year=1970 |title=A note on "metaphilosophy" |journal=Metaphilosophy |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=91 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9973.1970.tb00792.x}} see also the [[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] article by Nicholas Joll: [https://www.iep.utm.edu/con-meta/#SH1b Contemporary Metaphilosophy]</ref> Lazerowitz proposed that metaphilosophy is 'the investigation of the nature of philosophy'.<ref name=Lazerowitz/> Earlier uses have been found in translations from French.<ref>e.g. [[Georges Clemenceau|Clemenceau G.]], ''In the evening of my thought'' (''Au soir de la pensée'', Paris: Plon, 1927), Houghton Mifflin company, 1929, Vol. 2, p. 498: "this teratological product of metaphilosophy"; [[Etienne Gilson|Gilson E.]], ''Christianity and philosophy'', Pub. for the Institute of Mediaeval Studies by Sheed & Ward, 1939, p. 88</ref> The term is derived from [[Greek (language)|Greek]] word ''[[Meta (prefix)|meta]]'' μετά ("after", "beyond", "with") and ''[[philosophy|philosophía]]'' φιλοσοφία ("love of wisdom").

The term 'metaphilosophy' is used by [[Paul Moser]]<ref name=Moser>{{cite book |author=Paul K. Moser |chapter=Metaphilosophy |editor= Robert Audi |title= The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy |publisher= Paw Prints 2008-06-26 |year=2008 |edition=Paperback reprint of 2nd |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bVXPwAACAAJ |isbn=978-1439503508 |pages= 561–562}}</ref> in the sense of a 'second-order' or more fundamental undertaking than philosophy itself, in the manner suggested by [[Charles Griswold]]:<ref name=Griswold/>
{{Blockquote|"The distinction between philosophy and metaphilosophy has an analogue in the familiar distinction between mathematics and metamathematics."<ref name=Moser/>|Paul K. Moser|''Metaphilosophy, ''p. 562}}

Some other philosophers treat the prefix ''[[Meta (prefix)|meta]]'' as simply meaning '<nowiki/>''about...''<nowiki/>', rather than as referring to a [[Metatheory|metatheoretical]] 'second-order' form of philosophy, among them [[Nicholas Rescher|Rescher]]<ref name=Rescher>{{cite book |author=Rescher N. |year=2007 |title=Philosophical Dialectics, an Essay on Metaphilosophy |chapter=Chapter 1: Philosophical principles|page=1 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ju4rh20YqJIC&pg=PA1 |isbn=978-0791467466 |publisher= State University of New York Press }}</ref> and Double.<ref name=Double>{{cite book |author=Richard Double |year=1996 |title=Metaphilosophy and Free Will |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195355413 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbKQUpUWgmEC&q=metaphilosophy}}</ref> Others, such as [[Timothy Williamson|Williamson]], prefer the term ''<nowiki/>'philosophy of philosophy''' instead of 'metaphilosophy' as it avoids the connotation of a 'second-order' discipline that looks down on philosophy, and instead denotes something that is a part of it.<ref name=Williams>{{cite book |author=Williamson, Timothy |year=2007 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YN2KGBgKwOcC |title=The Philosophy of Philosophy |publisher= Wiley-Blackwell |chapter=Preface |isbn=978-1405133968}}</ref> Joll suggests that to take metaphilosophy as 'the application of the methods of philosophy to philosophy itself' is too vague, while the view that sees metaphilosophy as a 'second-order' or more abstract discipline, outside philosophy, "is narrow and tendentious".<ref name=Jo11b>

{{cite journal |author=Nicholas Joll |title=Contemporary Metaphysics: Defining metaphilosophy |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/con-meta/#SH1b |journal=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=November 18, 2010}}
</ref>

In the [[analytic philosophy|analytic tradition]], the term "metaphilosophy" is mostly used to tag commenting and research on previous works as opposed to original contributions towards solving [[philosophical problems]].<ref>e.g. [[PhilPapers]]</ref>