This overview and critical assessment of the work of the influential contemporary philosopher, John McDowell aims to provide students with an intellectual primer for reading McDowell. With the recent publication of two collections of McDowell's papers, interest in his work amongst the broader philosophical community is high, and the time is right for an overview that sets out the differing strands of his work prior to, and leading up to, their combination in the broader philosophical vision, revealed in "Mind and World". In addition, the book aims to offer an interpretative and critical framework that will help shape the ongoing debates surrounding McDowell's work, and introduce to students the intersection of philosophy of thought and language, epistemology and metaphysics on which he focuses. The book examines the detailed work McDowell has carried out on Wittgenstein's discussion of normativity, ethical judgements, theories of sense, meaning and truth, and the role of experience in epistemology. The final chapter explores how these individual projects are unified in a post-Kantian framework that articulates the preconditions of thought and language, and suggests ways in which this synthesis may not be completely successful.

Author: Tim Thornton is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick.
ISBN: 1-902683-72-2
Publisher: Acumen Publishing