The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674335902 ISBN 13: 9780674335905

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2020

Synopsis

“A remarkable book capable of reshaping what one takes philosophy to be.”
―Cora Diamond, Kenan Professor of Philosophy Emerita, University of Virginia

Could there be a logical alien―a being whose ways of talking, inferring, and contradicting exhibit an entirely different logical shape than ours, yet who nonetheless is thinking? Could someone, contrary to the most basic rules of logic, think that two contradictory statements are both true at the same time? Such questions may seem outlandish, but they serve to highlight a fundamental philosophical question: is our logical form of thought merely one among many, or must it be the form of thought as such?

From Descartes and Kant to Frege and Wittgenstein, philosophers have wrestled with variants of this question, and with a range of competing answers. A seminal 1991 paper, James Conant’s “The Search for Logically Alien Thought,” placed that question at the forefront of contemporary philosophical inquiry. The Logical Alien, edited by Sofia Miguens, gathers Conant’s original article with reflections on it by eight distinguished philosophers―Jocelyn Benoist, Matthew Boyle, Martin Gustafsson, Arata Hamawaki, Adrian Moore, Barry Stroud, Peter Sullivan, and Charles Travis. Conant follows with a wide-ranging response that places the philosophical discussion in historical context, critiques his original paper, addresses the exegetical and systematic issues raised by others, and presents an alternative account.

The Logical Alien challenges contemporary conceptions of how logical and philosophical form must each relate to their content. This monumental volume offers the possibility of a new direction in philosophy.

About this title

About the Authors

Sofia Miguens is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Porto, where she leads the Mind, Language, and Action group at the Institute of Philosophy. She is the author of seven books and former president of the Portuguese Philosophical Association.

James Conant is Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Jocelyn Benoist is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and author of Concepts, Les limites de l’intentionalité (The Bounds of Intentionality), and Le bruit du sensible (The Noise of Sensible Things). He is a recipient of the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize.

Matthew Boyle is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Charles Travis is Professor Emeritus at King’s College London and Professor Afiliado at the Universidade do Porto.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0674335902
• ISBN 13: 9780674335905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1080
• Editor: Miguens Sofia