The Essential Davidson. With an introduction by Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig.

DAVIDSON, Donald (1917-2003):

ISBN 10: 0199288852 / ISBN 13: 9780199288854

Published by Oxford, etc.: Oxford University Press, 2006., 2006

About this Item

First Edition. 3 leaves, 282 pp. Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket. Reprints 15 papers. 'The Essential Davidson compiles the most celebrated papers of one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. It distills Donald Davidson's seminal contributions to our understanding of ourselves, from three decades of essays, into one thematically organized collection. A new, specially written introduction by Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig, two of the world's leading authorities on his work, offers a guide through the ideas and arguments, shows how they interconnect, and reveals the systematic coherence of Davidson's worldview. Davidson's philosophical program is organized around two connected projects. The first is that of understanding the nature of human agency. The second is that of understanding the nature and function of language, and its relation to the world. Accordingly, the first part of the book presents Davidson's penetrating investigations of reasons, causes, and intentions, which revolutionized the philosophy of mind and action. He demonstrates that explanation of action is not only a matter of causal explanation of the movements of our bodies, but also involves justification, by showing the action to have been done for reasons. This leads to his notable doctrine of anomalous monism, the view that all mental events are physical events, but that there are no laws governing their connections, and so the mental cannot be reduced to the physical. The second part of the book presents the famous essays in which Davidson set out his highly original and influential philosophy of language, which founds the theory of meaning on the theory of truth. The connections between meaning, truth, and understanding are illuminated by his pioneering notions of radical interpretation and triangulation. He explores the role of first-person authority in human knowledge, and the role of indirect discourse and metaphor in human language. These fifteen classic essays will be invaluable for anyone interested in the study of mind and language. Fascinating though they are individually, it is only when drawn together that they have their full power, for there emerges a compelling picture of man as a rational linguistic animal whose thoughts, though not reducible to the material, are part of the fabric of the world, and whose knowledge of his own mind, the minds of others, and the world around him is as fundamental to his nature as the power of thought and speech itself' (Oxford University Press Web site).

Seller Inventory # 24178

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Essential Davidson. With an introduction by Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig.
• Publisher: Oxford, etc.: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199288852
• ISBN 13: 9780199288854
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The Essential Davidson compiles the most celebrated papers of one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. It distills Donald Davidson's seminal contributions to our understanding of ourselves, from three decades of essays, into one thematically organized collection. A new, specially written introduction by Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig, two of the world's leading authorities on his work, offers a guide through the ideas and arguments, shows how they interconnect, and reveals the systematic coherence of Davidson's worldview.

Davidson's philosophical program is organized around two connected projects. The first is that of understanding the nature of human agency. The second is that of understanding the nature and function of language, and its relation to the world. Accordingly, the first part of the book presents Davidson's investigation of reasons, causes, and intentions, which revolutionized the philosophy of action. This leads to his notable doctrine of anomalous monism, the view that all mental events are physical events, but that the mental cannot be reduced to the physical. The second part of the book presents the famous essays in which Davidson set out his highly original and influential philosophy of language, which founds the theory of meaning on the theory of truth.

These fifteen classic essays will be invaluable for anyone interested in the study of mind and language. Fascinating though they are individually, it is only when drawn together that there emerges a compelling picture of man as a rational linguistic animal whose thoughts, though not reducible to the material, are part of the fabric of the world, and whose knowledge of his own mind, the minds of others, and the world around him is as fundamental to his nature as the power of thought and speech itself.

About the Author

Donald Davidson (1917-2003) was Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously Professor at Stanford, Princeton, Rockefeller, and the University of Chicago. He was a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.