Publisher description

Regardless of its particular topic, each of Donald Davidson's essays is part of a comprehensive progrqamme to address questions about language, mind and action, and their interconnections. Themes from this larger programme permeate and bind his work on semantics: on the notions of meaning and truth, on theories of truth, reference, logical form and inference, compositionality, 'intentional' operators, indeterminacy, conceptual relativism, skepticism and metaphor. Twenty-eight critical essays, including a substantial introduction to Davidson's philosophy of language, and three essays by Davidson himself, make up this volume. The volume's six sections corespond to the major section of Davidson's inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Each contains critical essays addressing, interpreting and further develoing his views. The first section, written by the editor, gives an overview of the whole volume, the second section focuses on truth and meaning; the third, applications of Davidson's semantic theory; the fourth, radical interpretation; the fifth, language and reality, and the sixth, limits of the literal.

Donald Davidson has made enormous contributions to the philosophy of action, epistemology, semantics and philosophy of mind and today is recognized as one of the most important analytical philosophers of the late twentieth century. Donald Davidson: Truth, Meaning and Knowledge addresses * Davidson's writings on epistemology and theory of language with their implications of ontology and philosophy of mind * the central issue of whether truth is the ultimate goal of enquiry, challenged by contributions from Richard Rorty and Paul Horwich * Davidson's approach to semantics and applied linguistics as addressed by Kirk Ludwig, Gabriel Segal, Peter Pagin, Stephen Neale, Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore and Reinaldo Elugardo * Davidson's advances in the philosophy of mind in relation to the views of Williard V. Quine, John McDowell and Peter F. Strawson, in essays by Roger Gibson and Anita Avramides

This volume offers a reappraisal of Donald Davidson's influential philosophy of thought, meaning, and language, Twelve specially written essays by leading philosophers in the field illuminate a range of themes and problems relating to these subjects, and engage in particular with Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig's interpretation of Davidson's thought.

Donald Davidson (1917-2003) was one of the most important philosophers of the late twentieth century. His work on language and the theory of meaning has been particularly influential.Two of the world's leading authorities on Davidson's philosophy, Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig, provide a systematic exposition of his work in this field and of his contributions to philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology which spring from it. Their second aim is to assess Davidson's program critically, to mark its successes, but also to identify where its ccomplishments fall short of its ambitions, and, since it is an on-going research program, to assess its prospects for the future, and to contribute to the expansion of that program. Criticizing and extending Davidson's thought, as well as providing an introduction to it, Lepore and Ludwig address a broad academic audience. Their work will be of fundamental importance for those who are coming to Davidson's work for the first time; while some philosophical sophistication and training is presupposed, it is accessible both to advanced undergraduates and to graduate students. It will also be welcomed by professional philosophers, linguists, and anyone wishing to assess and understand Davidson's remarkable intellectual legacy.

The analysis of the connections between truth, meaning, thought, and action poses a major philosophical challenge—one that Donald Davidson addressed by establishing a unified theory of language and mind. This volume offers a reappraisal of Davidson's intellectual legacy. Twelve specially written essays by leading philosophers in the field illuminate a range of enduring philosophical problems, and engage in particular with Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig's interpretation of Davidson's philosophy. The collection affirms Davidson's continuing influence on the study of language, mind, and action, and offers a variety of new perspectives on his work.

Donald Davidson has contributed to many subjects in contemporary philosophy. He was one of the most influential Anglo-American analytical philosophers in the late 20th century. His leading topics are the theory of meaning, the philosophy of action and the theory of mind. His claim is to give a Unified Theory of Thought, Meaning, Action, and Evaluation as a new foundational account of language. In the history of his work emerged an overall view of mind and its relation to the world. This approach argues for a total revision of the Cartesian tradition and of traditional empiricism in epistemology. This book systemizes his philosophy and refers to the critiques of his theory of meaning, action, and mind since the 1970s years. It is not fixed what Davidson's place in the history of philosophy will be, but many patterns of philosophical thought in the last fifty years would not have been without him.

Donald Davidson (1917-2003) was one of the most important philosophers of the late twentieth century. His work on language and the theory of meaning has been particularly influential.Two of the world's leading authorities on Davidson's philosophy, Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig, provide a systematic exposition of his work in this field and of his contributions to philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology which spring from it. Their second aim is to assess Davidson's program critically, to mark its successes, but also to identify where its ccomplishments fall short of its ambitions, and, since it is an on-going research program, to assess its prospects for the future, and to contribute to the expansion of that program. Criticizing and extending Davidson's thought, as well as providing an introduction to it, Lepore and Ludwig address a broad academic audience. Their work will be of fundamental importance for those who are coming to Davidson's work for the first time; while some philosophical sophistication and training is presupposed, it is accessible both to advanced undergraduates and to graduate students. It will also be welcomed by professional philosophers, linguists, and anyone wishing to assess and understand Davidson's remarkable intellectual legacy.

Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig examine the foundations and applications of Davidson's influential program of truth-theoretic semantics for natural languages. The program uses an axiomatic truth theory for a language, which meets certain constraints, to serve the goals of a compositional meaning theory. Lepore and Ludwig explain and clarify the motivations for the approach, and then consider how to apply the framework to a range of important natural language constructions, including quantifiers, proper names, indexicals, simple and complex demonstratives, quotation, adjectives and adverbs, the simple and perfect tenses, temporal adverbials and temporal quantifiers, tense in sentential complement clauses, attitude and indirect discourse reports, and the problem of interrogative and imperative sentences. They not only discuss Davidson's own contributions to these subjects but consider criticisms, developments, and alternatives as well. They conclude with a discussion of logical form in natural language in light of the approach, the role of the concept of truth in the program, and Davidson's view of it. Anyone working on meaning will find this book invaluable.

Thanks to their heterogeneity, the nine essays in this volume offer a clear testimony of Donald Davidson's authority, and they undoubtedly show how much his work - even if it has raised many doubts and criticisms - has been, and still is, highly influential and significant in contemporary analytical philosophy for a wide range of subjects. Moreover, the various articles not only critically and carefully analyze Davidson's theses and arguments (in particular those concerning language and knowledge), but they also illustrate how such theories and ideas, despite their unavoidable difficulties, are still alive and potentially fruitful. Davidon's work is indeed an important and provocative starting point for discussing the future progress of philosophy.