DOCSLIB.ORG

Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective (Philosophical Essays of Donald

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective (Philosophical Essays of Donald Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective Other volumes of collected essays by Donald Davidson Essays on Actions and Events Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation Problems of Rationality (forthcoming) Truth, Language, and History (forthcoming) Subjective, Intersubjectivey Objective DONALD DAVIDSON CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD 2001 This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © In this collection Donald Davidson 2001 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 0-19-823752-9 Cover design: Simon Levy Author photography: Ena Bodin To Marcia Cavell This page intentionally left blank Contents Provenance of the Essays and Acknowledgements ix Introduction xiii Subjective 1 1. First Person Authority (1984) 3 2. Knowing One's Own Mind (1987) 15 3. The Myth of the Subjective (1988) 39 4. What is Present to the Mind? (1989) 53 5. Indeterminism and Antirealism (1997) 69 6. The Irreducibility of the Concept of the Self (1998) 85 Intersubjective 93 7. Rational Animals (1982) 95 8. The Second Person (1992) 107 9. The Emergence of Thought (1997) 123 Objective 135 10. A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge (1983) 137 Afterthoughts (1987) 154 11. Empirical Content (1982) 159 12. Epistemology and Truth (1988) 177 13. Epistemology Externalized (1990) 193 14. Three Varieties of Knowledge (1991) 205 Contents List of Volumes of Essays by Donald Davidson 221 Bibliographical References 227 Index 233 This page intentionally left blank Provenance of the Essays and Acknowledgements Essay 1, 'First Person Authority', was read at a conference on inten- tionality organized by Henri Lauener and held in Biel, Switzerland, in 1983. Earlier versions had been read at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Stanford University, and the University of Colorado. It was first published in Dialectica, 38 (1984), 101-11. 'Knowing One's Own Mind', Essay 2, was delivered as the Presidential Address at the Sixtieth Annual Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Los Angeles on March 28, 1986, and published in Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association (1987), 441-58. It is reprinted here by permission of the American Philosophical Association. I am greatly indebted to Akeel Bilgrami and Ernie Lepore for criticism and advice, and to Tyler Burge, who generously tried to correct my understanding of his work. Essay 3, 'The Myth of the Subjective', was read at a conference on Consciousness, Language, and Art in Vienna in 1986, and was published in the proceedings Bewusstsein, Sprache und die Kunsl, edited by Michael Benedikt and Rudolf Berger, by Edition S. Verlag der Osterreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1988. Essay 4, 'What is Present to the Mind?', was delivered at the Second International France Veber Colloquium, held in Bad Radkersburg, Austria, and Gornja Radgona, in what was then Yugoslavia and is now Slovenia. It was published in a book of essays on my work, most of them delivered at that conference. The editors of the book were Johannes Brandl and Wolfgang Gombocz, and it appeared as a special volume of Grazer Philosophische Studien (vol. 36, 1989) titled The Mind of Donald Davidson (Amsterdam: Rodopi). x Provenance of the Essays 'Indeterminism and Antirealism', Essay 5, was read at a confer- ence on realism and antirealism at Santa Clara University in early 1992. It was published in Realism/Antirealism and Epistemology, edited by C. B. Kulp (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997). Essay 6, The Irreducibility of the Concept of the Self, was writ- ten with the help and advice of Marcia Cavell for a book designed to honor the work of Dieter Henrich. The book, Philosophic in synthetischer Absicht, was edited by Marcelo Stamm (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1998). Essay 7, 'Rational Animals', was delivered at a conference orga- nized by Henri Lauener which took place in Biel, Switzerland, in 1981. It was first published in Dialectica, 36 (1982), 317-27. 'The Second Person', which is Essay 8, was given as a talk at a conference on Wittgenstein in Paris in 1989. It was published under the title 'Jusqu'ou va le caractere public d'une langue?' in Wittgenstein et la philosophic aujourd'hui, edited and translated into French by J. Sebestik and A. Soulez (Paris: Meridiens Klincksieck, 1992). In the same year a somewhat modified English version was published in Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 17, which was edited by P. French, T. E. Uehling, and H. Wettstein (Indianapolis: University of Notre Dame Press). About four pages near the end are taken from 'The Conditions of Thought', a paper written for, and delivered at, a plenary session at the World Congress of Philosophy in Brighton, 1988. It was published in Le Cahier du College International de Philosophic (Paris: Editions Osiris, 1989). Essay 9, The Emergence of Thought', was given as a talk at a seminar on emergence held at the University of Frankfurt in 1993. Translated into German by T. Marschner, it was published with the title 'Die Emergenz des Denkens' in Die Erfindung des Universums? Neue Oberlegungen zur philosophischen Kosmologie, edited by W. G. Saltzer, P. Eisenhardt, D. Kurth, and R. E. Zimmermann (Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1997). It was subsequently published in English with its present title in Erkenntnis, 51 (1999), 7-17. Essay 10, 'A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge', was my contribution to a colloquium organized by Richard Rorty as part of the 1981 Stuttgart Hegel Congress. W. V. Quine and Hilary Putnam were the other participants in the colloquium. Our papers were published two years later in the proceedings of that congress, Provenance of the Essays xi Kant oder Hegel? After Stuttgart the four of us had a more leisurely exchange on the same topics at the University of Heidelberg. When the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association met in March of 1983, Rorty read a paper titled 'Pragmatism, Davidson, and Truth'. In it he commented on some of the things I had written in 'A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge'; his paper was subsequently published (with revisions) in Truth and Interpretation: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson. I replied with 'Afterthoughts, 1987'. which was first published in conjunction with a reprinting of 'A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge' in Reading Rorty, edited by Alan Malachowski (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1990). 'Afterthoughts' as printed here is, aside from some biblio- graphical details noted above, a reprint of 'Afterthoughts, 1987'. 'Empirical Content', Essay 11, was read at a conference in Vienna (in the house Wittgenstein helped design) to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the births of Moritz Schlick and Otto Neurath. It was published in the year of the conference in Grazer Philosophische Studien, 16-17 (1982). Essay 12, 'Epistemology and Truth', was read at the Fourth Panamerican Philosophy Conference, held in Cordoba, Argentina, in September of 1987. It was published in the proceedings of that conference by the National University of Cordoba in 1988. Essay 13, 'Epistemology Externalized', was read in an early version at a SADAF meeting in Buenos Aires in 1989. The next year it was presented at a conference in Biel, Switzerland, and published in 1991 in Dialectica, 45 2-3: 191-202. 'Three Varieties of Knowledge'. Essay 14, was written to be delivered in February of 1991 as an A. J. Ayer Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. When the date for the lecture arrived, a snowstorm disabled the transportation system of southern England to such an extent that the lecture was cancelled. It was subsequently published with other memorial lectures in A. J. Ayer Memorial Essays: Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 30, edited by A. Phillips Griffiths (Cambridge University Press, 1991). With some changes it was delivered as a Heisenberg Lecture in one of the upgraded stables of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich and published in German in Merkur with the same title as the title of the present book. This page intentionally left blank Introduction The essays in this book are concerned with three sorts of preposi- tional knowledge and the relations among them. We all have knowl- edge of our own minds, knowledge of the contents of other minds, and knowledge of the shared environment. The subsections of the book are titled Subjective, Intersubjective, and Objective. The words track real differences. First person knowledge is distinguished by the fact that we can legitimately claim a unique sort of authority with respect to what we believe, want, intend, and some other attitudes. Second person knowledge and knowledge of the rest of the world of nature do not have this authority, but they differ from each other in that our knowledge of other minds is normative in a way the latter is not.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia?
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Asbury Theological Seminary Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 12 Issue 4 Article 1 10-1-1995 Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia? David Merrihew Lewis Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Lewis, David Merrihew (1995) "Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia?," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 12 : Iss. 4 , Article 1. Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol12/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. SHOULD A MATERIALIST BELIEVE IN QUALIA? David Lewis Should a materialist believe in qualia? Yes and no. 'Qualia' is a name for the occupants of a certain functional role that is spelled out in our tacitly known folk psychology. If materialism is true, there are no perfect occu­ pants of the role, and hence no perfect deservers of the name. But in all probability there are imperfect occupants of the role, imperfect deservers of the name. Good enough deservers of the name? May they just be called 'qualia'? I say yes. But I take this to be a case of semantic indecision. There is no settled answer to the question 'how good is good enough?'.
    [Show full text]
  • Dennett's Theory of the Folk Theory of Consciousness
    Dennett’s Theory of the Folk Theory of Consciousness1 Justin Sytsma Abstract: It is not uncommon to find assumptions being made about folk psychology in the discussions of phenomenal consciousness in philosophy of mind. In this article I consider one example, focusing on what Dan Dennett says about the “folk theory of consciousness.” I show that he holds that the folk believe that qualities like colors that we are acquainted with in ordinary perception are phenomenal qualities. Nonetheless, the shape of the folk theory is an empirical matter and in the absence of empirical investigation there is ample room for doubt. Fortunately, experimental evidence on the topic is now being produced by experimental philosophers and psychologists. This article contributes to this growing literature, presenting the results of six new studies on the folk view of colors and pains. I argue that the results indicate against Dennett’s theory of the folk theory of consciousness. The existence of phenomenal consciousness is often taken for granted in the philosophical and scientific literature on the topic. Sometimes, this attitude is supported by claims that phenomenal consciousness is in some way evident in our ordinary experience itself.2 The prevalence of this attitude can also be seen in the way that some skeptics about phenomenal consciousness discuss the supposed phenomenon. For example, the qualia eliminativist Dan Dennett seems to accept that belief in qualia is part of our “folk theory of consciousness” (2005, 31). In contrast, I have argued that phenomenal consciousness is not evident in ordinary experience alone—that it is not phenomenologically obvious—and that this can be drawn out by 1 To appear in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Privileged Access and Qualia
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by European Scientific Journal (European Scientific Institute) European Scientific Journal December 2015 edition vol.11, No.35 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 PRIVILEGED ACCESS AND QUALIA Thomas W. Smythe Retired Associate Professor, North Carolina Central University Abstract In this paper I shall examine some recent literature that purports to show that sensations or qualia are not real psychological phenomena, and that we do not have privileged access to our psychological states. In particular, I shall criticize some work by Daniel C. Dennett, who has argued against the existence of qualia and privileged access to the mental. I will maintain that Dennett has not made a convincing case for eliminating qualia, and has not shown that we do not have privileged access to psychological phenomena from a first-person point of view. Keywords: Qualia, Privileged Access, Self-Warranting Knowledge Introduction I will defend the view that certain criticisms of what has been called self-justifying or self-warranting knowledge of our psychological states have not succeeded. I will do this by arguing that attempts by Dennett and others to undermine self-justifying knowledge are unsuccessful. I begin by examining a paper by Dennett where he attempts to eliminate qualia. In a notable paper called ”Quining Qualia,” Dennett explains that he uses the verb ‘to quine’ in honor of W. V. O. Quine. It means to deny resolutely the existence or importance of something seemingly real and significant, for example, the soul. Quining qualia means saying there is no such thing as qualia.
    [Show full text]
  • Qualia NICHOLAS HARKNESS Harvard University, USA
    Qualia NICHOLAS HARKNESS Harvard University, USA Qualia (singular, quale) are cultural emergents that manifest phenomenally as sensuous features or qualities. The anthropological challenge presented by qualia is to theorize elements of experience that are semiotically generated but apperceived as non-signs. Qualia are not reducible to a psychology of individual perceptions of sensory data, to a cultural ontology of “materiality,” or to philosophical intuitions about the subjective properties of consciousness. The analytical solution to the challenge of qualia is to con- sider tone in relation to the familiar linguistic anthropological categories of token and type. This solution has been made methodologically practical by conceptualizing qualia, in Peircean terms, as “facts of firstness” or firstness “under its form of secondness.” Inthephilosophyofmind,theterm“qualia”hasbeenusedtodescribetheineffable, intrinsic, private, and directly or immediately apprehensible experiences of “the way things seem,” which have been taken to constitute the atomic subjective properties of consciousness. This concept was challenged in an influential paper by Daniel Dennett, who argued that qualia “is a philosophers’ term which fosters nothing but confusion, and refers in the end to no properties or features at all” (Dennett 1988, 387). Dennett concluded, correctly, that these diverse elements of feeling, made sensuously present atvariouslevelsofattention,wereactuallyidiosyncraticresponsestoapperceptions of “public, relational” qualities. Qualia were, in effect,
    [Show full text]
  • Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology's
    Augsburg Honors Review Volume 12 Article 4 2019 Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire Allison Mangan Augsburg University Follow this and additional works at: https://idun.augsburg.edu/honors_review Part of the Epistemology Commons Recommended Citation Mangan, Allison (2019) "Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire," Augsburg Honors Review: Vol. 12 , Article 4. Available at: https://idun.augsburg.edu/honors_review/vol12/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate at Idun. It has been accepted for inclusion in Augsburg Honors Review by an authorized editor of Idun. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Allison Mangan Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire Alio Maga, Augbug Univesty ualia are layered and complex, the basic philosophic understanding a labyrinth of a concept, of qualia today. We will see how Q rife with debate as to their consciousness is necessary for qualia, existence, state, and what they mean and why this makes defning qualia for our understanding of knowledge, a challenge. Next, we will go over the relationship with the world, and explanatory gap of qualia. From there, ourselves. Toughtful exploration into we will see how qualia relate to the mind- the complexities of what qualia are body problem, and the early exploration and how they relate to the mind-body of this problem through Descartes, problem will be wrestled with though Locke, and Berkeley. Additionally, we research applied within this paper. will go over the main schools of thought Qualia can be found in philosophical that surround the mind-body problem: debates surrounding epistemology materialism, idealism, and dualism.
    [Show full text]
  • Ryle and the Para-Mechanical
    BRYAN BENHAM Ryle and the Para-mechanical WINNER OF mE 1999 LARRY TAYLOR MEMORIAL AWARD The thesis of this paper is the unconventional claim that Gilbert Ryle is not a logical behaviorist. The popular account ofRyle clearly places his work in The Concept ofMind (1949) in the camp oflogical behaviorist.! The object of this paper, however, will be to illustrate how the conventional interpretation of Ryle is misleading. My argument is not an exhaustive account of Ryle, but serves as a starting point for understanding Ryle outside of the behaviorist label that is usually attached to his work. The argument is straightforward. First, it is apparent on any reasonable construal that logical behaviorism is a reductionist project about the mind. The basic claim of logical behaviorism is that statements containing mental vocabulary can be analyzed into statements containing only the vocabulary of physical behavior. Second, any reasonable account ofRyle will show that he is not a reductionist about the mental, in fact he was adamantly anti-reductionist about the mind. Once these two claims are established it follows quite readily that Ryle was not a logical behaviorist. The first premise is uncontroversial. Anyone familiar with logical behaviorism understands that its aim is to show that mental terminology doesn't refer to unobserved phenomena, supposedly in the head of the person described, but rather to the observed physical behaviors or dispositions to behave (Hempel 1999). In fact, in its strict formulation, logical behaviorism claims that mental terminology signifies only these observed behaviors or dispositions to behave. Thus, I will take it as a reasonably established claim that logical behaviorism is reductionist about the mind.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 a REFUTATION of QUALIA-PHYSICALISM Michael
    1 To appear in M. O’Rourke and C. Washington (eds.), Situating Semantics: Essays on the Philosophy of John Perry (MIT Press) A REFUTATION OF QUALIA-PHYSICALISM Michael McKinsey Wayne State University Recent defenders of reductive physicalism such as Brian Loar (1990, 1997) and John Perry (2001) have adopted an intriguing new strategy:i (1) accept as so much common sense (nearly) everything that property-dualists want to say about sensory qualia, including the central claims that sensory qualia determine ‘what it’s like’ to have a given sense experience, and that persons are directly aware of these qualia in the having of such experiences; (2) contend that while these common sense facts about qualia may show that our ways of thinking and speaking about qualia are conceptually different from our ways of thinking and speaking about physical properties of the brain, these facts do not show that sensory qualia themselves (as opposed to our ways of thinking and speaking about them) are distinct from physical properties of the brain; (3) use this contention to turn aside the few existing arguments against reductive physicalism by such property dualists as Kripke (1972), Nagel (1974), Jackson (1982), and Chalmers (1996); and finally (4) insist that sensory qualia are in fact just identical with physical properties of the brain, so that consequently, the facts about the sensory qualities of conscious experience are nothing over and above physical facts about the brain. I will call the view that incorporates this strategy ‘qualia-physicalism’, or ‘Q-physicalism’ for short. In this paper I will argue that Q-physicalism is false.
    [Show full text]
  • Mind/Body Overview
    Mind/Body Overview 1. Physics and Folk Psychology a. Physics: hard-nosed, particles, observables, repeatable b. Folk Psychology: Beliefs, hopes, desires, sensations, subjective, consciousness 2. Issues a. Ontological 1. What are mental states and processes? 2. What are physical states and processes? 3. How are the mental and physical related? 4. Example: Replace NS with silicon starting at retina. Still conscious? b. Semantical 1. Where do propositional attitudes get their meanings? Ex: Belief; Belief that p. 2. Where do qualia get their meanings? Ex: pain, red, warmth 3. Where do other terms get their meanings? Ex: horse, electron c. Epistemological 1. How do we know anything? 2. How do we know if something has a mind? (Problem of other minds) 3. How do I know my own mental states? (Problem of self-consciousness) d. Methodological 1. What are appropriate methods for studying psychology? 2. What determines their propriety? 3. Ontologies a. Substance Dualism 1. Descartes: Mind is a distinct substance from matter 2. Matter: extended in space; has length, width, breadth, and position. 1 3. Mind: essence is thinking; has no extension or position in space. 4. Reasons: how could matter ever use language or reason mathematically? 5. Problem: How can mind interact with matter, and not violate conservation laws? 6. Problem: Electrons have no extension or determinate postion in space. Yet physical. 7. Eccles and Popper: mind affects probabilities of exocytosis at all synapses b. Popular Dualism 1. Mind is a “ghost in a machine”; machine=body; mind=spiritual substance 2. Mind is inside body (probably brain) 3. Mind interacts with brain by some form of energy exchange 4.
    [Show full text]
  • THE MYTH of LOGICAL BEHAVIOURISM and the ORIGINS of the IDENTITY THEORY Sean Crawford the Identity Theory's Rapid Rise to Asce
    THE MYTH OF LOGICAL BEHAVIOURISM AND THE ORIGINS OF THE IDENTITY THEORY Sean Crawford The identity theory’s rapid rise to ascendancy in analytic philosophy of mind during the late 1950s and early 1960s is often said to have constituted a sea change in perspective on the mind-body problem. According to the standard story, logical or analytical behaviourism was analytic philosophy of mind’s first original materialist-monist solution to the mind-body problem and served to reign in various metaphysically extravagant forms of dualism and introspectionism. It is understood to be a broadly logico-semantic doctrine about the meaning or definition of mental terms, namely, that they refer to dispositions to engage in forms of overt physical behaviour. Logical/analytical behaviourism then eventually gave way, so the standard story goes, in the early 1960s, to analytical philosophy’s second original materialist-monist solution to the mind-body problem, the mind-brain identity theory, understood to be an ontological doctrine declaring states of sensory consciousness to be physical states of the brain and wider nervous system. Of crucial importance here is the widely held notion that whereas logical behaviourism had proposed an identity between the meanings of mental and physical- behavioural concepts or predicates—an identity that was ascertainable a priori through conceptual analysis—the identity theory proposed an identity between mental and physical properties, an identity that could only be established a posteriori through empirical scientific investigation. John Searle (2004) has recently described the transition thus: [logical behaviourism] was gradually replaced among materialist-minded philosophers by a doctrine called “physicalism,” sometimes called the “identity theory.” The physicalists said that Descartes was not wrong, as the logical behaviourists had claimed, as a matter of logic, but just as a matter of fact.
    [Show full text]
  • Environments of Intelligence
    Environments of Intelligence “An absorbing volume that integrates an extraordinarily wide area of work, with interesting observations and new twists right to the end.” Ruth Millikan, University of Connecticut, USA What is the role of the environment, and of the information it provides, in cognition? More specifically, may there be a role for certain artefacts to play in this context? These are questions that motivate “4E” theories of cognition (as being embodied, embedded, extended, enactive). In his take on that family of views, Hajo Greif first defends and refines a concept of information as primarily natural, environmen- tally embedded in character, which had been eclipsed by information-processing views of cognition. He continues with an inquiry into the cognitive bearing of some artefacts that are sometimes referred to as “intelligent environments”. With- out necessarily having much to do with Artificial Intelligence, such artefacts may ultimately modify our informational environments. With respect to human cognition, the most notable effect of digital computers is not that they might be able, or become able, to think but that they alter the way we perceive, think and act. Hajo Greif teaches at the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Technical University of Munich, Germany, and the Department of Philosophy, University of Klagenfurt, Austria. His research interests cover the philosophy – and some of the history and the social studies – of science and technology, as well as the philosophy of mind. History and Philosophy of Technoscience Series Editor: Alfred Nordmann For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com 1 Error and Uncertainty in Scientific Practice Marcel Boumans, Giora Hon and Arthur C.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with Donald Davidson
    An interview with Donald Davidson Donald Davidson is an analytic philosopher in the tradition of Wittgenstein and Quine, and his formulations of action, truth and communicative interaction have generated considerable debate in philosophical circles around the world. The following "interview" actually took place over two continents and several years. It's merely a part of what must now be literally hundreds of hours of taped conversations between Professor Davidson and myself. I hope that what follows will give you a flavor of Donald Davidson, the person, as well as the philosopher. I begin with some of the first tapes he and I made, beginning in Venice, spring of 1988, continuing in San Marino, in spring of 1990, and in St Louis, in winter of 1991, concerning his induction into academia. With some insight into how Professor Davidson came to the profession, a reader might look anew at some of his philosophical writings; as well as get a sense of how the careerism unfortunately so integral to academic life today was so alien to the generation of philosophers Davidson is a member of. The very last part of this interview is from more recent tapes and represents Professor Davidson's effort to try to make his philosophical ideas available to a more general audience. Lepore: Tell me a bit about the early days. Davidson: I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 6, 1917 to Clarence ("Davie") Herbert Davidson and Grace Cordelia Anthony. My mother's father's name was "Anthony" but her mother had married twice and by coincidence both her husbands were named "Anthony".
    [Show full text]
  • English Philosophy in the Fifties
    English Philosophy in the Fifties Jonathan Ree If you asked me when was the best time for philosophy in possibly unconscious, as with the contents of the books England in the twentieth century-forprofessional, academic which were destined to become classics. For these reasons, philosophy, that is - I would answer: the fifties, without a I have not engaged with the high-altitude synoptic critiques doubt. And: the fifties, alas. * Under the leadership of - notably those ofMarc use andAnderson - to which Oxford Gilbert Ryle and f.L. Austin, the career philosophers ofthat philosophy has been subjected, either.} period had their fair share of bigotry and evasiveness of The story I tell is meant to be an argument as well as a course; but they also faced up honestly and resourcefully to factual record. It shows that although the proponents ofthe some large and abidingly important theoretical issues. Oxford philosophical revolution prided themselves on their Their headquarters were at that bastion of snobbery and clarity, they never managed to be clear about what their reaction, Oxford University; and by today's standards they revolution amounted to. In itself this is not remarkable, were shameless about their social selectness. They also perhaps; but what is strange is that they were not at all helped philosophy on its sad journey towards being an bothered by what was, one might have thought, quite an exclusively universitarian activity. But still, many of them important failure. This nonchalance corresponded, I be­ tried to write seriously and unpatronisingly for a larger lieve, to their public-school style - regressive, insiderish, public, and some of them did it with outstanding success.
    [Show full text]