Research Catalog

Title

Subjectivity, realism, and postmodernism : the recovery of the world / Frank B. Farrell.

Author

Farrell, Frank B.

Publication

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 290 pages; 24 cm

Summary

This unusually accessible account of recent Anglo-American philosophy focuses on how that philosophy has challenged deeply held notions of subjectivity, mind, and language. Where some have concluded that this challenge must inevitably lead to antirealism and relativism, Frank Farrell argues that the rejection of certain metaphysical notions leads to a more acute sense of realism, or, as he puts it, to the recovery of the world." The book is designed on a broad canvas in which recent arguments are placed in a historical context (in particular they are related to medieval philosophy and German idealism). The author then explores such topics as mental content, moral realism, realism and antirealism, and the character of subjectivity. Much of the book is devoted to an investigation of Donald Davidson's philosophy, and there is also a sustained critique of the position of Richard Rorty. A final chapter defends the realist position against objections from postmodern thought. As a rigorous and historically sensitive account of recent philosophy this book should enjoy a wide readership among philosophers of many different persuasions, literary theorists, and social scientists who have been influenced by postmodern thought.

Subject

• Davidson, Donald, 1917-2003
• Rorty, Richard
• Davidson, Donald, 1917-2003
• Rorty, Richard
• Bewusstsein Zusammenstellung
• 1900-1999
• Philosophy, Modern > 20th century
• Subjectivity
• Realism
• Philosophy of mind
• Philosophy, Modern
• Subjektivität
• Realismus
• Postmoderne
• Realismus Philosophie
• Subjectiviteit
• Taal
• Filosofie van de geest
• Postmodernism
• Language and languages > Philosophy
• Geschichte 1960-1994

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-285) and index.

Contents

• 1. "Theological" Subjectivity and the Hegelian Response. Disenchantment of the World and of Subjectivity. The Subject as External and Arbitrary Determiner. Aquinas and the Self-relating God. The Consolidation of a Free-standing Interior. God's-eye View and a "Human" Realism. Subjectivity and the World in Hegel. Beyond Kantianism and Empiricism. Transition to Contemporary Philosophy -- 2. The Disenchantment of Mind. Externalism about Mental Content. Attempts at a Retreat Inward. Interiority and Following a Rule. Externalism, Science, and Self-knowledge. Mind and the Causal Order. Studying the Mind -- 3. Davidson and the Disenchantment of Language. The Davidsonian Project. Semantics without Meanings. Reality without Reference. Ontological Relativity? Against the Very Idea of a Language. Meaning and the Linguistic Community. Davidson and Skepticism -- 4. Rorty and Antirealism. Rorty and Davidson. Rorty and the Loss of the World. How Rorty Exploits the Alliance with Davidson. Rorty, Davidson, Heidegger.
• Religious Structures in Rorty's Thought. Rorty, Disenchantment, and Modern Institutions -- 5. Realism. Antirealism, Religious Conceptions, and Modern Thought. Parochial Realism and Wiggins. Putnam's Internal Realism. How Well Do Our Concepts and Practices Travel? Antirealism in Dummett and Wright -- 6. Moral Realism. Moral Value and the Character of the World. Harman's Argument. Realism and Antirealism in Ethics. Moral Realism, Theory, Virtue -- 7. Self-Relating Selves. Ways of Being Self-relating. Individuality, Consciousness, and Representation. Intentionality and Reflexivity. Freedom and Self-willing -- 8. Postmodernism. The Character of Postmodern Thought. Derrida, Language, and Philosophy. Fish and the Loss of the Text. World, Self, and Reason in Foucault.

ISBN

• 0521444160
• 9780521444163
• 0521568323
• 9780521568326

LCCN

93010252

OCLC

• ocm27814924
• 27814924
• SCSB-9475138

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library