What philosophers know : case studies in recent analytic philosophy / Gary Gutting.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gutting, Gary, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Analysis (Philosophy)--Case studies.

Analysis (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Philosophy has never delivered on its promise to settle the great moral and religious questions of human existence, and even most philosophers conclude that it does not offer an established body of disciplinary knowledge. Gary Gutting challenges this view by examining detailed case studies of recent achievements by analytic philosophers such as Quine, Kripke, Gettier, Lewis, Chalmers, Plantinga, Kuhn, Rawls, and Rorty. He shows that these philosophers have indeed produced a substantial body of disciplinary knowledge, but he challenges many common views about what philosophers have achieved. Topics discussed include the role of argument in philosophy, naturalist and experimentalist challenges to the status of philosophical intuitions, the importance of pre-philosophical convictions, Rawls' method of reflective equilibrium, and Rorty's challenge to the idea of objective philosophical truth. The book offers a lucid survey of recent analytic work and presents a new understanding of philosophy as an important source of knowledge.

Contents:

Part I : how does that go? : the limits of philosophical argument

Quine's "Two dogmas" : argument or imagination?

Argument and intuition in Kripke's Naming and necessity

The rise and fall of counterexamples : Gettier, Goldman, and Lewis

Reflection : pictures, intuitions, and philosophical knowledge

Part II : arguments and convictions

Turning the tables : Plantinga and the rise of philosophy of religion

Materialism and compatibilism : two dogmas of analytic philosophy?

Was there a Kuhnian revolution? : convictions in the philosophy of science

Conviction and argument in Rawls' A theory of justice

Part III : philosophical truth and knowledge

Rorty against the world : philosophy, truth, and objectivity

Philosophical knowledge : conclusions and an application.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-247) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-19626-4

1-282-53944-2

9786612539442

0-511-84115-9

0-511-71911-6

0-511-71956-6

0-511-51565-0

0-511-71865-9

0-511-51693-2

OCLC:

609833145