Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy

P. F. Strawson

ISBN 10: 0198751184 / ISBN 13: 9780198751182

Published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1992

About this Item

Preface viii, ten chapters, index, 144 pages. Light rubbing, scuffing, and denting to cover and page edge extremities, light creasing to a couple of interior pages. Sound spine, clean cover, unmarked interior pages. Size: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Philosophy; ISBN: 0198751184. ISBN/EAN: 9780198751182. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 5296.

Seller Inventory # 5296

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198751184
• ISBN 13: 9780198751182
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

All developed human beings possess a practical mastery of a vast range of concepts, including such basic structural notions as those of identity, truth, existence, material objects, mental states, space, and time; but a practical mastery does not entail theoretical understanding. It is that understanding which philosophy seeks to achieve. In this book, one of the most distinguished of living philosophers, assuming no previous knowledge of the subject on the part of the reader, sets out to explain and illustrate a certain conception of the nature of analytical philosophy. Strawson draws on his many years of teaching at Oxford University, during which he refined and developed what he regards as the most productive route to understanding the fundamental structure of human thinking. Among the distinctive features of his exposition are the displacement of an older, reductive conception of philosophical method (the ideal of "analyzing" complex ideas into simpler elements) in favor of elucidating the interconnections between the complex but irreducible notions which form the basic structure of our thinking; and the demonstration that the three traditionally distinguished departments of metaphysics (ontology), epistemology, and logic are but three aspects of one unified enquiry. Strawson has produced an elegant work that will be invaluable to students and stimulating for professional philosophers and general readers alike.

About the Author

P. F. Strawson is at St Johns, University, and Magdalen Colleges, Oxford.