12 Modern Philosophers

12 Modern Philosophers Edited by Christopher Belshaw and Gary Kemp 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-15261-7

12

MODERN PHILOSOPHERS
Edited by

Christopher Belshaw and Gary Kemp

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

This edition rst published 2009 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwells publishing program has been merged with Wileys global Scientic, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Ofce John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Ofces 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial ofces, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Christopher Belshaw and Gary Kemp to be identied as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 12 modern philosophers / edited by Christopher Belshaw and Gary Kemp. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-5261-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4051-5262-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy, Modern20th century. 2. Philosophers, Modern. I. Belshaw, Christopher. II. Kemp, Gary, 1960 Oct. 15 III. Title: Twelve modern philosophers. B804.A21 2009 190dc22 2008026375 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 11.5/13pt Perpetua by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd 1 2009

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Quine Rawls Davidson Williams Rorty Fodor Nagel Kripke Nozick Part McDowell Singer Index Christopher Belshaw and Gary Kemp A. W. Moore Thomas Baldwin Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig Catherine Wilson Alan Malachowski Jos Luis Bermdez Sonia Sedivy Alexander Bird A. R. Lacey Jacob Ross Marie McGinn Lori Gruen

vi vii 1 16 34 54 76 94 115 134 153 173 192 216 232 251

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We have many people to thank. At Wiley-Blackwell, Nick Bellorini, Gillian Kane, and Liz Cremona have always had an unerring sense of what is better and what worse for this project, along with a less unerring sense, were pleased to say, of times passage. We had early encouragement from a number of philosophers in both the US and the UK. Without them, we might have faltered. Each of us would like to thank the other: neither would have got very far alone. And of course our deepest thanks are to the contributors who have provided these chapters, tolerated our sometimes pernickety comments and suggestions, and made the book more than possible. The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission from the sources listed below to reproduce the photographs on the following pages: 16: Photo by Adele Skinner, courtesy of Douglas Quine. 34: Alec Rawls. 54: Ena Bodin. 76, 94: Sijmen Hendricks. 115, 216: Steve Pyke / Getty Images. 153: Robert P. Matthews / Ofce of Communications, Princeton University. 173: Martha Holmes / Time and Life Pictures / Getty Images. 232: Rune Hellestad / CORBIS.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Thomas Baldwin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. He is the author of G. E. Moore (1990) and Contemporary Philosophy (2001); he was also editor of The Cambridge History of Philosophy 18701945 (2003) and Reading Merleau-Ponty (2007). He is currently the editor of the journal Mind. Alexander Bird is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Philosophy of Science (1998), Thomas Kuhn (2000), and Natures Metaphysics (2008), and researches is philosophy and history of science and medicine (he is a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science), metaphysics, and epistemology. Christopher Belshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Staff Tutor (Arts) with the Open University. He works mainly at the theoretical end of applied ethics. He is the author of Ideas (1998), Environmental Philosophy (2001), and 10 Good Questions About Life and Death (2005). Another book, Annihilation: The Sense and Signicance of Death, is forthcoming (2009). Jos Luis Bermdez is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St Louis, where he is also Director of the Center for Programs and Director of the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program. He is the author of The Paradox of Self-Consciousness (1998), Thinking without Words (2003), and Philosophy of Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction (2005). He is currently writing a textbook on cognitive science for Cambridge University Press.

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Notes on Contributors

Lori Gruen is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University, where she also directs the Ethics in Society Project. She works at the intersection of ethical theory and ethical practice, with a particular focus on ethical issues that impact those often overlooked in traditional ethical investigations, e.g. women, people of color, non-human animals. She has published widely on topics in practical ethics including: animal ethics and mind, feminist ethics and politics, and philosophy of law. She is currently writing a book exploring the complex philosophical issues raised by our relations to captive chimpanzees. Gary Kemp is Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Glasgow. He works in the philosophy of logic and language, on Frege, Russell, Quine, and Davidson, and on aesthetics and philosophical themes in literature. He is the author of Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed (2005) and, with Tracy Bowell, of Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide (3rd edn. 2009). A. R. Lacey was born in Birmingham in 1926. After studying Classics at Cambridge, he gained a PhD in ethics and then taught philosophy at Bedford College, London (1954 84) and Kings College London (19842001). He specialized in ancient philosophy at rst and later moved more toward modern philosophy. He has published A Dictionary of Philosophy (3rd edn. 1996), Modern Philosophy: An Introduction (1982), Bergson (1989), a translation of Philoponous on Aristotle: Physics II (1993), and Nozick (2001). He is now enjoying a quiet retirement in London and Bromsgrove. Ernie Lepore is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University; he works in philosophy of language and mind and cognitive science. His most recent book is Insensitive Semantics (2004). Kirk Ludwig is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Florida. He is coauthor of Donald Davidson: Meaning, Truth, Language and Reality (2005) and Donald Davidsons Truth Theoretic Semantics (2007), with Ernie Lepore. He is editor of Donald Davidson (2003). He has published articles on a variety of topics in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of action. Alan Malachowski is Honorary Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. His publications include: Richard Rorty (2002), The New Pragmatism (2008), Reading Rorty (ed., 2002), Pragmatism, 3 vols. (ed., 2004), Richard Rorty, 4 vols. (ed., 2002), and The Cambridge Companion to Pragmatism (ed., 2009).

Notes on Contributors

ix

Marie McGinn is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. She is the author of Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations (1997) and Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgensteins Early Philosophy of Logic and Language (2006), as well as articles on Wittgenstein, philosophy of mind, and skepticism. A. W. Moore is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. His publications include The Innite (2nd edn. 2001), Points of View (1997), and Noble in Reason, Innite in Faculty: Themes and Variations in Kants Moral and Religious Philosophy (2003). He has also edited three anthologies: Meaning and Reference (1993), Innity (1993), and Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline (2006), the last of which is a collection of essays by Bernard Williams, for whom he is a literary executor. Jacob Ross is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is interested in, and works on, questions concerning normativity and rationality, along with a range of issues in ethics and metaethics. Sonia Sedivy is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on philosophy of mind and perception, Wittgenstein, and philosophy of art, and her published papers range across these areas. She is currently completing a book that uses theory of perception and the later philosophy of Wittgenstein to address contemporary issues in theory of art. Catherine Wilson is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author, most recently, of Moral Animals: Ideals and Constraints in Moral Theory (2004).