Oxford University Press

Michael Devitt

Michael Devitt presents a series of essays in which he argues for an uncompromisingly realist view of the external physical world. He goes on to reject moral noncognitivism & antirealist views of truth. He argues against the a priori, & urges that we should approach epistemology & semantics from a metaphysical perspective & not vice versa.

Essays on Metaphysics and Epistemology

Putting Metaphysics First

Distinguished Professor of Philosophya Michael Devitt

What is linguistics about? What role should linguistic intuitions play in constructing grammars? What is innate about language? Arguing that linguistics is about linguistic reality and is not part of psychology, this book offers answers to these questions. It is intended for those working on language and the mind.

Ignorance of Language

Biological Essentialism addresses three main issues. The first concerns the essences (natures, identities) of biological taxa, particularly species. Kripke and other metaphysicians hold that these essences are (at least partly) intrinsic, underlying, probably largely genetic properties. This view, based largely on intuitions, is dismissed by the consensus in the philosophy of biology as being incompatible with Darwinism and reflecting ignorance of biology. Biological Essentalism argues that the demands of biological explanation show that the metaphysicians are right. The positive view of the consensus is that the essences are wholly relational: taxa must have certain histories. Biological Essentialism argues that there is indeed an historical component to the essence, but this component presupposes an intrinsic component. Its second issue concerns the essences of biological individuals. Metaphysicians have had much to say about this, again on the basis of intuitions. Many hold that an individual is essentially a member of its species. This has recently been unequivocally rejected by philosophers of biology. Biological Essentialism appeals to biological explanation again to argue for essential membership; furthermore, to argue for the Kripkean view that an organism's essence is partly intrinsic and partly relational (a matter of origin). Finally, the book addresses the lively contemporary issue of whether race is biologically “real”. From the perspective developed earlier, the book argues that there are indeed racial kinds, in some sense, that are “in the realm of the biological”. These kinds also have partly historical and partly intrinsic underlying essences.

Biological Essentialism

Richard Hanley

The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Language is a collection of twenty new essays in a cutting-edge and wide-ranging field. Surveys central issues in contemporary philosophy of language while examining foundational topics Provides pedagogical tools such as abstracts and suggestions for further readings Topics addressed include the nature of meaning, speech acts and pragmatics, figurative language, and naturalistic theories of reference

The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language

Professor of Philosophy Ernest Sosa

Devitt Michael

Professor Devitt takes up one of the most important difficulties that must be faced by philosophical semantics: namely, the threat posed by holism.

A Naturalistic Program for Semantic Localism

Coming to Our Senses

Kim Sterelny

What is language? How does it relate to the world? How does it relate to the mind? Should our view of language influence our view of the world? These are among the central issues covered in this spirited and unusually clear introduction to the philosophy of language. Making no pretense of neutrality, Michael Devitt and Kim Sterelny take a definite theoretical stance. Central to that stance is naturalism--that is, they treat a philosophical theory of language as an empirical theory like any other and see people as nothing but complex parts of the physical world. This leads them, controversially, to a deflationary view of the significance of the study of language: they dismiss the idea that the philosophy of language should be preeminent in philosophy. This highly successful textbook has been extensively rewritten for the second edition to reflect recent developments in the field.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language

Language and Reality

In a provocative thesis, philosophy professor Michael Devitt argues for a thoroughgoing realism about the common-sense and scientific physical world and for a corresponding notion of truthcontrary to the opinions of anti-realists such as Putnam, Dummett, van Fraassen, and others. This second edition includes a new Afterword by the author.

Michael Devitt

About

Books

Join the club