Among the philosophers who were most influential in English in the period between the two world wars were the analysts. Their analytic theories were sometimes associated with the metaphysical view which Russel called logical atomism, sometimes with the supposedly anti-metaphysical doctrines of logical positivism, and sometimes, as in the case of G.E. Moore, the analytic practice had no clearly defined dogmatic background at all. But they were united at least in the view that analysis was least one of the most important tasks of the philosopher; and by analysis they meant something which, whatever precise description of it they chose, at least involved the attempt to rewrite in different and in some way more appropriate terms those statements which they found philosophically puzzling.