Connections to the World: The Basic Concepts of Philosophy - Softcover

Danto, Arthur C. C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520208420 ISBN 13: 9780520208421

Publisher: University of California Press, 1997

Synopsis

Arthur C. Danto's lucid introduction to the central topics of Western philosophical thought remains an unparalleled guide to problems in metaphysics and epistemology that have engaged philosophers for several millennia. Examining the work of Plato, Berkeley, Descartes, Hume, and Wittgenstein, Danto explores debates about empiricism, the mind/body problem, the nature of matter, and the status of language, consciousness, and scientific explanation. In a new preface to this edition he considers the current relationship between philosophy and the humanities.

About this title

About the Author

Arthur C. Danto is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association and the author of more than fifteen books, including Encounters and Reflections (California paperback, 1996) and Playing with the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (California, 1995).

Reviews

Danto argues that the principal concern of philosophy has always been the theory of knowledge (epistemology) because men must know how they can get accurate knowledge about the world. We (subject) connect to the world (object) by our perceptions (representations) of the world. Philosophers are concerned with how we get our representations and how we know they are true. Danto's short chapters can be read like daily meditations. (LJ 4/1/97)
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Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520208420
• ISBN 13: 9780520208421
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312