Description
The Philosophy of Philosophy
The Blackwell / Brown Lectures in Philosophy
The Philosophy of Philosophy presents an original, unified concept of philosophy as a non-natural science. In this provocative work, distinguished philosopher Timothy Williamson challenges widely-held assumptions and clarifies long-standing misconceptions about the methodology and nature of philosophical inquiry. The author rejects the standard narratives of contemporary philosophy developed from naturalism, the linguistic turn, postmodern irony, and other prominent trends of the twentieth century. Viewing the method of philosophy as evolving from non-philosophical pursuits, Williamson provides readers with fresh insight into the “self-image” of philosophy and offers new ways of understanding what philosophy is and how it actually works.
Now in its second edition, this landmark volume comprises the original book and the author’s subsequent work. New topics include the recent history of analytic philosophy, assessments of experimental philosophy, theories of concepts and understanding, Wittgensteinian approaches, popular philosophy, naturalism, morally-loaded examples in philosophy, philosophical applications of scientific methods, and many more. This edition features the author’s latest thoughts on a variety of issues, autobiographical reflections, and replies to critics.
The Philosophy of Philosophy, Second Edition remains essential reading for philosophers, scholars, graduate and advanced undergraduate students in philosophy, and other readers with a sustained interest in the method and rationale of the doing of philosophy.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Preface to the First Edition xxx
Acknowledgments xxxiii
Part I 1
Introduction 3
1 The Linguistic Turn and the Conceptual Turn 12
2 Taking Philosophical Questions at Face Value 25
3 Metaphysical Conceptions of Analyticity 50
4 Epistemological Conceptions of Analyticity 75
5 Knowledge of Metaphysical Modality 136
6 Thought Experiments 181
7 Evidence in Philosophy 210
8 Knowledge Maximization 249
Afterword Must Do Better 280
Appendix 1 Modal Logic within Counterfactual Logic 295
Appendix 2 Counterfactual Donkeys 307
Part II 311
9 Widening the Picture 313
9.1 How Did We Get Here from There? The Transformation of Analytic Philosophy 313
9.2 Abductive Philosophy 351
9.3 Model-Building in Philosophy 372
9.4 Morally Loaded Cases in Philosophy 386
9.5 Reply to Dennett and Kuznetsov on Abductive Philosophy 401
9.6 Reply to Kuznetsov and Stoljar on Model-Building in Philosophy 404
10 Experimental Philosophy 406
10.1 Reply to Weinberg 406
10.2 Philosophical Expertise and the Burden of Proof 413
10.3 On Joshua Alexander’s Experimental Philosophy: An Introduction 431
10.4 Philosophical Criticisms of Experimental Philosophy 440
10.5 Reply to Dennett, Knobe, and Kuznetsov on “Philosophical Intuitions” 464
11 Naturalism 467
11.1 Reply to Kornblith 467
11.2 Reply to Stalnaker 471
11.3 Reply to Bianchi 481
11.4 What is Naturalism? 484
11.5 The Unclarity of Naturalism 488
11.6 On Penelope Maddy’s What Do Philosophers Do? Skepticism and the Practice of Philosophy 491
12 Concepts, Understanding, Analyticity 497
12.1 Reply to Jackson 497
12.2 Reply to Boghossian 502
12.3 Reply to Peacocke 512
12.4 Reply to Mišc¡evic´ 520
12.5 Reply to Smokrovic´ 529
12.6 Reply to Trobok 533
13 Wittgensteinian Approaches 538
13.1 Reply to Moore 538
13.2 Reply to Horwich 543
13.3 Reply to Frascolla 553
13.4 Reply to Marconi 556
13.5 Reply to Tripodi 560
13.6 On Paul Horwich’s Wittgenstein’s Metaphilosophy 563
14 Miscellany 569
14.1 Reply to Ichikawa 569
14.2 Reply to Martin 575
14.3 On Robert Brandom’s Reason in Philosophy: Animating Ideas 579
14.4 On Peter Unger’s Empty Ideas: A Critique of Analytic Philosophy 586
14.5 Plato Goes Pop 591
14.6 Popular Philosophy and Populist Philosophy 595
Bibliography 598
Index 619
