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Philip Larrey,
Thinking Logically
Contemporary European Cultural Studies
Series editors,
Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala
Professor
Larrey grapples with the issue of what counts as “thinking
logically,” and where such thinking leads us, through this
survey of four, widely influential thinkers in the
analytical tradition. Relying on works by four leading
thinkers of the past 50 years, Larrey fleshes out the
logical consequences of their reflection on knowledge,
concluding that any knowledge that purports valid truth
claims must be rooted in what can be considered
common
sense knowledge. Although the subject matter deals with
certain technicalities of recent thought in the analytical
tradition, the upshot of the arguments is rather
straight-forward: even after the Copernican Revolution,
Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics, common sense
knowledge is still the necessary foundation for all
subsequent speculation, especially where truth is concerned.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One — Presuppositions
and other ‘commitments’: W. V. O. Quine
§ 1 Crucial importance of
‘what is presupposed’
§ 2 Quine and the ‘utopia’ of
extensionality
§ 3 Existence trumps
Ontological Commitment
§ 4 Existence, Theoretical
Constructs and Common Sense
Chapter Two — Conceptual
Schemes: Donald Davidson
§ 5 Historical Survey
§ 6 Davidson’s Critique
§ 7 Truth Makers
§ 8 Objective Truth
Chapter Three — Interpretation
and Common Sense: Richard Rorty
§ 9 After the Linguistic Turn
§ 10 Truth & Intersubjective
Agreement
§ 11 Pre-philosophical
Convictions
Chapter Four — Realism and
Reticence: Hilary Putnam
§ 12 Analytic and
Post-Analytic Philosophy
§ 13 On ‘The View from
Nowhere’
§ 14 Internal Realism with a
capital ‘R’
Conclusion
§ 15 Philosophy unbounded
§ 16 The future of Philosophy
Notes
Bibliography
Author
Philip Larrey earned his doctorate in analytical
philosophy in 1994 at the Gregorian University. He teaches
logic at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. His
interests include the philosophy of science, the
relationship between science and religion, and the
rationality of religious belief. He is a regular contributor
to the philosophical journal of the Lateran University,
Aquinas, and has published several articles on the
themes of truth, alethic logic and the philosophy of common
sense. He is also Guest Lecturer at several American
Universities at their Rome campuses.
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