Michael Dummett

P. A. Schilpp's 'Library of Living Philosophers' is the series which introduced to the philosophical community the format of a volume of essays on the work of a distinguished philosopher, combined with replies to the essays by the philosopher targeted. The format proved attracti ve to a discipline which has always placed a high premium on debate. But the Schilpp series has shown itself unenterprising in its choice of subjects, concentrating on end-of-year reports on philosophers who are of undoubted distinction, but whose contribution to the subject can be regarded as rather definitely over. Which leaves a gap, which the present series is designed to fill, for volumes of a similar format aiming at assessment of philosophers who have distinguished themselves already by making a substan­ tial impact on their discipline, but whose further work too is awaited with eager anticipation. Michael Dummett is an ideal subject for a series with this goal of mid­ term assessment. His writings to date have permanently altered philosophy's conception of what is at issue between realism and idealism (and its paler cousin, anti-realism); and this has been achieved by way of a supplementary clarification of a host of issues in the philosophy of language and of mathematics, and of the Frege/Wittgenstein historical tradition from which such issues are typically approached in contemporary philosophy.

Contenu

1. Dummett and Revisionism.- 2. Holism, Molecularity and Truth.- 3. In Defence of Modesty.- 4. Truth Beyond All Verification.- 5. Dummett on a Theory of Meaning and Its Impact on Logic.- 6. Fixed Past, Unfixed Future.- 7. Playing Cards.- 8. Twenty Years of Racialism and Multi-Racialism.- 9. Replies to Essays.- A. Reply to Crispin Wright.- B. Reply to Neil Tennant.- C. Reply to John McDowell.- D. Reply to Brian Loar.- E. Reply to Dag Prawitz.- F. Reply to D.H.Mellor.- G. Reply to Sylvia Mann.- H. Reply to John Rex.- Chronological Bibliography of Michael Dummett's Publications.- Alphabetical Guide to Michael Dummett's Publications.- Index of Names.