Contemporary Philosophy Philosophy in English since 1945

by Baldwin, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780192892584
• ISBN10: 0192892584
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This accessible and up-to-date survey introduces the central debates of English-language philosophy since 1945. A brief description of philosophical debates during the first half of the twentieth century is followed by extended discussions of some of the writings of Wittgenstein, Ryle, Austin,Quine, and Sellars. The book then describes several ensuing philosophical debates that have shaped philosophical discussions from the 1960s until the present day. There are chapters on: the Davidson/Dummett debate concerning language; the Kripke/Lewis debate concerning possible worlds; thePopper/Kuhn debate concerning science; the debates concerning epistemology, materialism, functionalism, and dual-aspect theories of mind; and recent work in moral psychology, metaethics, and normative ethics. The final chapter is a critical discussion of Rorty's metaphilosophical scepticism. Inaddition, there is extensive attention to writings of Strawson, Putnam, Evans, McDowell, Williams, Nagel, and many other contemporary philosophers. Thomas Baldwin's lively and coherent critical discussion of his subject demonstrates the connections between different areas of philosophy in a way which readers unfamiliar with philosophy will find both stimulating and accessible.

Author Biography

Thomas Baldwin is Professor and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of York. His previous posts include lectureships at Makerere University (Uganda) and Cambridge University.

Table of Contents

Setting the Scene: 1945	1	(13)
The Analytical Project	2	(5)
Common Sense, Naturalism, and Pragmatism	7	(3)
The Turn form Language and the Possibility of Philosophy	10	(4)
Investigating Wittgenstein	14	(25)
Philosophical Investigations	15	(2)
Language-games	17	(3)
Rule-following	20	(5)
The Private Language Argument	25	(2)
The Grammar of Mind	27	(4)
First-Person/Third-Person Asymmetries	31	(3)
On Certainty	34	(3)
Wittgenstein's Naturalism	37	(2)
The Oxford Movement	39	(25)
Ordinary Language Philosophy	40	(2)
Gilbert Ryle	42	(1)
The Concept of Mind	43	(2)
The Ghost in the Machine	45	(2)
Abilities and Dispositions	47	(5)
J. L. Austin	52	(1)
Sense and Sensibilia	53	(4)
Doing Things with Words	57	(2)
Sir Peter Strawson	59	(3)
Conversational Implicature	62	(2)
The American Point of View	64	(31)
The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction	65	(4)
Quine's Criticisms of Analyticity	69	(7)
Empiricism Naturalized	76	(2)
The Indeterminacy of Translation	78	(7)
Indeterminacy Reinterpreted and Naturalism Revised	85	(2)
Analyticity Reconsidered	87	(3)
Wilfred Sellars	90	(5)
Understanding Language	95	(26)
Davidson and Truth-conditions	95	(3)
Radical Interpretation	98	(4)
Thought and Language	102	(1)
Against Scepticism and Relativism	103	(3)
Semantic Analysis	106	(1)
Dummett and Understanding	107	(3)
Manifesting Understanding	110	(1)
Anti-realism	111	(3)
Meaning, Evidence, and Knowledge	114	(3)
Meaning and Convention	117	(4)
Exploring the Possibilities	121	(23)
Quine's Essential Doubts	121	(2)
Possible Worlds	123	(2)
Rigid Designatiors	125	(5)
Essentialism	130	(3)
`Water= H2O'	133	(3)
Modal Realism	136	(4)
Modal Fictions	140	(4)
The Scientific Paradigm	144	(21)
The Three-sided Debate	144	(4)
Popper and Logical Empiricism	148	(3)
The kuhnian Revolution	151	(2)
Incommensurability and Procedural Rationality	153	(6)
Scientific Realism and the Pessimistic Meta-induction	159	(6)
Natural Doubts	165	(27)
The Brain-in-a-vat	165	(1)
Hume's Riddle and Goodman's Paradox	166	(3)
Responding to Sceptical Arguments	169	(3)
Transcendental Arguments	172	(4)
Putnam's Brain	176	(2)
Reliable Belief	178	(2)
Externalism and Internalism in Epistemology	180	(2)
Knowledge	182	(5)
The Absolute Conception	187	(5)
Aspects of Mind	192	(39)
Intention and Action	193	(3)
Reasons and Causes	196	(3)
Anomalous Monism	199	(2)
The Mind/Body Identity Theory	201	(2)
Functionalism	203	(4)
Dual Aspect Theory	207	(2)
Supervenience	209	(2)
Free Will	211	(3)
Knowledge of Self and Others	214	(1)
Intentionality	215	(4)
Brutes	219	(1)
Externalism	220	(6)
Consciousness	226	(5)
Questions of Value	231	(36)
Hare and the Language of Morals	233	(2)
Hare's Critics	235	(4)
Moral Psychology and the Internalism Debates	239	(5)
Moral Realism	244	(5)
Expressivism	249	(3)
Objectivity	252	(4)
Virtues, Duties, and Consequences	256	(4)
The Dimensions of Morality	260	(7)
The End of Philosophy?	267	(10)
The Renewal of Philosophy	267	(2)
Rorty the Sceptic	269	(5)
Philosophy and Method	274	(3)
References and Further Reading	277	(14)
Index	291