The Nature and Future of Philosophy

A controversial call for philosophers to resolve theoretical difference and recapture the vital work of their practice.

Auteur

Michael Dummett was Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford University until his retirement in 1992. He has also taught at Stanford University, Princeton University, the University of Bologna, the University of Ghana, and Harvard University, and is the author of numerous volumes, including Truth and the Past, The Seas of Language, and Origins of Analytical Philosophy.

Texte du rabat

Philosophy is a discipline that makes no observations, conducts no experiments, and needs no input from experience. It is an armchair subject, requiring only thought. Yet that thought can advance knowledge in unexpected directions, not only through the discovery of new facts but also by improving our understanding of what we already know. Philosophy can clarify our vision of the world and arm us with ways to interpret it.Of course, philosophy's unified purpose hasn't prevented the discipline from splintering into a number of warring camps. Departments all over the world are divided among analytical and continental schools, Heidegger, Hegel, and other major thinkers, challenging the growth of the discipline and obscuring its relevance and intent. Having spent decades teaching philosophy in American, Asian, African, and European universities, Michael Dummett has witnessed firsthand the fractured state of contemporary practice and the urgent need for reconciliation. Setting forth a proposal for renewal and reengagement, Dummett begins by describing the nature of philosophical inquiry as it has developed for centuries, especially its exceptional openness and perspective, which has, ironically, led to our present crisis. He discusses philosophy in relation to science, religion, morality, language, and meaning and suggests avenues for healing the discipline, potentially around a renewed investigation of the mind, language, and thought. Dummett's popularity as a teacher and writer stems from his frankness and accessibility, and he brings these very qualities to a major intellectual intervention.

Contenu

1. Philosophy as an Academic Subject 2. What Is a Philosophical Question? 3. Philosophy as the Grammar of Thought 4. Science 5. Psychology and Scientism 6. Religion and Philosophy 7. Religion and Morality 8. The Influence of Gottlob Frege 9. Frege's Analysis of Sentences 10. Frege's Theory of Meaning 11. Gadamer on Language 12. The Paradox of Analysis 13. Thought and Language 14. Realism 15. Relativism 16. The Future of Philosophy