Bibliographic Information

The engaged intellect : philosophical essays

John McDowell

Harvard University Press, 2013, c2009

  • : pbk

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Note

"First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2013"--T.p. verso

Originally published: 2009

Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-337) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The Engaged Intellect collects important essays of John McDowell. Each involves a sustained engagement with the views of an important philosopher and is characterized by a modesty that is partly temperamental and partly methodological. It is typical of McDowell to represent his own best insights either as already to be found in the writings of his heroes (Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Gadamer, and Sellars) or as inevitably emerging from a charitable modification of the views of those (such as Anscombe, Sellars, Davidson, Evans, Rorty, Dreyfus, and Brandom) subjected here to criticism. McDowell therefore develops his own philosophical picture in these pages through a method of indirection. The method is one of intervening in a philosophical dialectic at a characteristic juncture-in which it is difficult to avoid the feeling that further progress is required. McDowell shows how progress is to be achieved by preserving what is most attractive in the views of those he is in conversation with, while whittling away their weaknesses. As he practices this method, what emerges through the volume is the unity of McDowell's own views. The combination of philosophical breadth with dialectical depth-of intricate argumentative detail with overall philosophical coherence-marks McDowell as one of the most compelling philosophers of our time.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BB13702078
  • ISBN
    • 9780674725799
  • LCCN
    2008013845
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge, Mass.
  • Pages/Volumes
    ix, 343 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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