
Mind and World
With a New Introduction by the Author
John McDowell(Author)
Harvard University Press
2nd Edition
Published on 1. September 1996
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-674-57610-0 (ISBN)
Description
Modern philosophy finds it difficult to give a satisfactory picture of the place of minds in the world. In Mind and World, based on the 1991 John Locke Lectures, one of the most distinguished philosophers writing today offers his diagnosis of this difficulty and points to a cure. In doing so, he delivers the most complete and ambitious statement to date of his own views, a statement that no one concerned with the future of philosophy can afford to ignore.
John McDowell amply illustrates a major problem of modern philosophy-the insidious persistence of dualism-in his discussion of empirical thought. Much as we would like to conceive empirical thought as rationally grounded in experience, pitfalls await anyone who tries to articulate this position, and McDowell exposes these traps by exploiting the work of contemporary philosophers from Wilfrid Sellars to Donald Davidson. These difficulties, he contends, reflect an understandable-but surmountable-failure to see how we might integrate what Sellars calls the "logical space of reasons" into the natural world. What underlies this impasse is a conception of nature that has certain attractions for the modern age, a conception that McDowell proposes to put aside, thus circumventing these philosophical difficulties. By returning to a pre-modern conception of nature but retaining the intellectual advance of modernity that has mistakenly been viewed as dislodging it, he makes room for a fully satisfying conception of experience as a rational openness to independent reality. This approach also overcomes other obstacles that impede a generally satisfying understanding of how we are placed in the world.
John McDowell amply illustrates a major problem of modern philosophy-the insidious persistence of dualism-in his discussion of empirical thought. Much as we would like to conceive empirical thought as rationally grounded in experience, pitfalls await anyone who tries to articulate this position, and McDowell exposes these traps by exploiting the work of contemporary philosophers from Wilfrid Sellars to Donald Davidson. These difficulties, he contends, reflect an understandable-but surmountable-failure to see how we might integrate what Sellars calls the "logical space of reasons" into the natural world. What underlies this impasse is a conception of nature that has certain attractions for the modern age, a conception that McDowell proposes to put aside, thus circumventing these philosophical difficulties. By returning to a pre-modern conception of nature but retaining the intellectual advance of modernity that has mistakenly been viewed as dislodging it, he makes room for a fully satisfying conception of experience as a rational openness to independent reality. This approach also overcomes other obstacles that impede a generally satisfying understanding of how we are placed in the world.
Reviews / Votes
Ever since Descartes, a lot of the very best philosophers have thought of science as an invading army from whose depredations safe havens have somehow to be constructed. Philosophy patrols the borders, keeping the sciences 'intellectually respectable' by keeping them 'within...proper bounds.' But you have to look outside these bounds if what you care about is the life of the spirit or the life of the mind. McDowell's is as good a contemporary representative of this kind of philosophical sensibility as you could hope to find. -- Jerry Fodor * London Review of Books * Mind and World is, above all, a work of therapy; and, like every good talking cure, it is hard work. But the diagnosis is penetrating, deeply persuasive, and expressed with that ear for the right phrase precisely placed which is the literary equivalent of perfect pitch. -- Max de Gaynesford * Australasian Journal of Philosophy * McDowell locates an important tension in our thinking about thought, suggests an attractive way of easing the tension, and offers a plausible diagnosis of why the tension is acute... Mind and World is a genuinely provocative book that should be discussed. -- Paul M. Pietroski * Canadian Journal of Philosophy * A powerfully impressive book which simply towers over the more routine contributions of current analytical philosophy. -- Simon Glendinning * Radical Philosophy *More details
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Academic/professional/technical: Undergraduate. Academic/professional/technical: Postgraduate. Academic/professional/technical: Research and professional
Illustrations
None
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
381 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-57610-0 (9780674576100)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/1996
Harvard University Press
€50.99
Available for download

E-Book
09/1996
1st Edition
Harvard University Press
€34.19
Available for download
Person
John McDowell is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Content
Preface Introduction Lecture I. Concepts and Intuitions Lecture II. The Unboundedness of the Conceptual Lecture III. Non-conceptual Content Lecture IV. Reason and Nature Lecture V. Action, Meaning, and the Self Lecture VI. Rational and Other Animals Afterword Part I. Davidson in Context Part II. Postscript to Lecture III Part III. Postscript to Lecture V Part IV. Postscript to Lecture VI Index