McDowell and His Critics

John McDowell s work has had an immense and lasting influence on philosophical thought. This volume contains newly commissioned papers by distinguished philosophers on McDowell s work, along with substantial replies to each by McDowell himself. The essays cover the full range of McDowell s seminal contributions in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, ancient philosophy, moral philosophy, and epistemology. Together, they offer by far the most comprehensive discussion of his work currently available.

Contributors are: Akeel Bilgrami, Simon Blackburn, Jonathan Dancy, Richard G. Heck, Jr., T. H. Irwin, Cynthia Macdonald, Graham Macdonald, Philip Pettit, Carol Rovane, R. M. Sainsbury, and Michael Smith.

Notes on Contributors.

Introduction.

1 Austerity and Openness: R. M. Sainsbury(University of Texas at Austin and King s College London).

Response to Sainsbury: John McDowell.

2 Reason and Language: Richard G. Heck, Jr. (Brown University and Arché).

Response to Heck: John McDowell.

3 Some Philosophical Integrations: Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University).

Response to Bilgrami: John McDowell.

4 Self–Knowledge and Inner Space: Cynthia Macdonald (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Queen s University Belfast).

Response to Macdonald: John McDowell.

5 Personal Identity, Ethical not Metaphysical: Carol Rovane (Columbia University).

Response to Rovane: John McDowell.

6 Acting in the Light of the Appearances: Jonathan Dancy (University of Reading and University of Texas at Austin).

Response to Dancy: John McDowell.

7 External Reasons: Philip Pettit and Michael Smith (Princeton University).

Response to Pettit and Smith: John McDowell.

8 Aristotle s Use of Prudential Concepts: T. H. Irwin (Cornell University).

Response to Irwin: John McDowell.

9 Julius Caesar and George Berkeley Play Leapfrog: Simon Blackburn (University of Cambridge).

Response to Blackburn: John McDowell.

10 The Two Natures: Another Dogma?: Graham Macdonald (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Queen s University Belfast).

Response to Macdonald: John McDowell.

Index

Cynthia Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy at Queen s University Belfast and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Her previous publications include Mind Body Identity Theories (1989), Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (Blackwell, 2005), and she is co–editor, with Stephen Laurence, of Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics (Blackwell, 1998).

Graham Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Distinguished International Fellow at the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen s University Belfast. He is co–author, with Philip Pettit, of Semantics and Social Science (1980). In addition, he is editor of Perception and Identity: Essays Presented to A. J. Ayer, with His Replies to Them (1979), co–editor, with Crispin Wright, of Fact, Science, and Morality (Blackwell, 1986), and co–editor, with Philip Catton, of Karl Popper: Critical Appraisals (2004).

Together, they have edited Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation and Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation (both Blackwell, 1995).

"This is an excellent collection of essays on the wide–ranging work of one of the most significant and original philosophers of our day. They raise some fundamental questions about McDowell′s views on a variety of topics, to which his own exemplary responses provide extremely valuable further elaboration and development of his thought." Bill Brewer, University of Warwick

"A very welcome addition to the Philosophers and their Critics series: there is much to be learnt from the interplay between the ten contributors probing papers and McDowell s responses to them." Jennifer Hornsby, Birkbeck College