John McDowell

John McDowell (born 1942) is a contemporary philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford and now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Related Topics:
1942 - Philosopher - University College - Oxford - University of Pittsburgh

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McDowell's most noted work has been in the philosophy of mind and language. In the 1970s he was active in the project of semantics for natural language that had been initiated by Donald Davidson. His work is also heavily influenced by, inter alia, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Wilfrid Sellars, P. F. Strawson, David Wiggins, and Gareth Evans.

Related Topics:
Philosophy - Mind - Language - 1970s - Semantics - Natural language - Donald Davidson - Ludwig Wittgenstein - Wilfrid Sellars - P. F. Strawson - David Wiggins - Gareth Evans

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In more recent years he has advocated an externalist theory of mind, and contends that a due respect for scientific naturalism should not preclude our treating mentalistic vocabulary as real – as actually referring to and describing the world. He has also written on Wittgenstein, Kant, Ancient Philosophy, and ethics.

Related Topics:
Externalist - Naturalism - Wittgenstein - Kant

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Many of McDowell's papers are collected in Mind, Value, and Reality and Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality. His John Locke Lectures are reprinted in Mind and World, an influential but difficult work that provides a controversial account of empirical justification for beliefs, covering some of the same ground as Hegel's critique of Kant but informed by a deep sensitivity to contemporary modes of scientific naturalism. Many of the central themes in McDowell's work have also been pursued in similar ways by his Pittsburgh colleague Robert Brandom. Both have been strongly influenced by Richard Rorty; in the Preface to the second edition of 'Mind and World' (Harvard University Press, 1996), McDowell states that "...it will be obvious that Rorty's work is ... central for the way I define my stance here."

Related Topics:
John Locke - Lectures - Hegel's - Kant - Pittsburgh - Robert Brandom - Richard Rorty - Harvard University Press

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