Grice and Dummett on the future of philosophy (and its past)

Speranza


"The Nature and Future of Philosophy" (Columbia Themes in Philosophy) [Paperback]
Michael Dummett (Author)
Book Description
Series: Columbia Themes in Philosophy | Publication Date: April 22, 2010

"Philosophy is a discipline that makes no observations, conducts no experiments, and needs no input from experience."

"It is an armchair subject, requiring only thought."

"Yet that thought can advance knowledge in unexpected directions, not only through the discovery of new facts but also through the enhancement of what we already know."

"Philosophy can clarify our vision of the world and provide exciting ways to interpret it."

"Of course, philosophy's unified purpose hasn't kept the discipline from splintering into warring camps."

"Departments all over the world are divided among analytical and continental schools, Heidegger, Hegel, and other major thinkers, challenging the growth of the discipline and obscuring its relevance and intent."

"Having spent decades teaching in American, Asian, African, and European universities, Sir Michael has felt firsthand the fractured state of contemporary practice and the urgent need for reconciliation."

"Setting forth a proposal for renewal and reengagement, Dummett begins with the nature of philosophical inquiry as it has developed for centuries, especially its exceptional openness and perspective-which has, ironically, led to our present crisis."

"He discusses philosophy in relation to science, religion, morality, language, and meaning and recommends avenues for healing around a renewed investigation of mind, language, and thought."

"Employing his trademark frankness and accessibility, Dummett asks philosophers to resolve theoretical difference and reclaim the vital work of their practice."


"A concise yet wide-ranging examination of the scope and limits of philosophy by one of the analytical tradition's most articulate and significant living figures."

"Like Grice, Dummett (The Origins of Analytical Philosophy) defends a vision of philosophy as the analysis and clarification of our everyday concepts, thereby carving out a unique position for the discipline as distinct from scientific enquiry, psychology, and religion."

"Dummett fleshes out this vision in broad strokes, rooting what he calls a notion of philosophy as the grammar of thought in Gottlob Frege's groundbreaking work in logic, in particular his analysis of sentences and his theory of meaning, based on the distinction between sense and reference."

"While the author does profess a desire for reconciliation between the analytical and continental schools of philosophy, his choice and consideration of Hans Georg Gadamer as representative of the continental approach to questions about language, to the exclusion of figures like Saussure, Ricoeur, and Derrida, is perplexing."

"Nonetheless, Dummett's passionate advocacy for philosophy's continuing relevance and his defense of the field against the encroaching tendencies of physics and neurological science are never less than compelling."

"Dummett's passionate advocacy for philosophy's continuing relevance and his defense of the field against the encroaching tendencies of physics and neurological science are never less than compelling."





Dummett Straps Socrates Down For A Lethal Frege Injection.

By Carl Strasen - See all my reviews


"My initial delight upon finding this book at our public library was short."

"New students of philosophy
should avoid this title."

"It isn't just that Columbia University Press should be ashamed
to publish a title with typos, a broken Table of Contents, a shockingly amateur cover, no index, footnotes or suggested reading list, but rather, the juxataposition of Dummett's intent to kill Plato's universals via his linguistic analysis technique
while at the same time adhering to his traditional Roman Catholic belief system."

"My hair is on fire."

"Chapter 1 begins with a chirlish tone."

"Why do universities have philosophy departments
anyway?"

"This seems ironic since Dummett allegedly is "amongst our foremost living
philosophers" as the plug on the back informs."

"Why would someone at the pinnacle of
academic philosphy begin a book about philosophy on such a sour note?"

"Why not begin
with a normal discussion about philosophy having to do with being about the love of wisdom as one might expect?"

"Still, he does pick his hero: Frge."

"Later in the book (page 62) he says "all philosophy students at such universities are required to study him. Required? Why only Frege?"

"Chapter 2 "What is a Philosophy Question" bypasses the entire history of Western philosophy".

"And the wonderful contributions from Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
Spinoza, Descartes, and Kant to name just a few, and frames philosophy as the unworthy,
misguided servant of science or as he says "For Quine and some other contemporary philosophers
philosophy is simply the most abstract part of science." Simply?"

----

"Chapter 3 "Philosophy as the Grammar of Thought" prepares the injection."

"Gadamer is set up as the
straw man for Frege to bash."

"This book is all about advancing Dummett's analytic philosophy views,
it neglects its history and rich traditions of different viewpoints."

"But Frege is complex."

"Dummett doesn't play fair, he later dismisses Frege's
entire third realm of universals as "plainly a piece of philosophical mythology" page 83.

"The rest of the chapters are easy on the Roman Catholic Christian religion, and tough on philosophic themes that can't be reduced to "the cat is on the mat" true or false statements."

"There is no clue as to how continental
and analytic philosophy could be resolved as the plug on the back claimed would occur."

"The final irony
is that the "Future of Philosophy" chapter (only 7 pages long and almost half of that is a long quote from
another author) ends with Dummett claiming that the existence of Christian God will be proven "in the lifetimes
of our great grandchildren." page 151. Did he ever read Kant?"

"My anger grew as the pages turned."

"His book reminded me of a documentary I saw about the rise of South African private hunting clubs that feature exotic animals to hunt. As you watched, it wasn't clear if the hunters really cared about the animals at all, or whether their primary interest was the pleasure of killing them. In the same way, I see Dummett as a hunter of philosophic ideas, not interested in their intrinsic worth to the human experience but quite interested in eliminating them."


"I bought this book without reading the above reader's review. I read about 75% of the book."

"I quit reading after concluding that reading futher would be a waste of my time."

"I definitely agree with the above reader's review."