Description
Book SynopsisThis volume presents fourteen original essays which explore the philosophy of Simon Blackburn, one of the UK''s most influential contemporary philosophers. Blackburn is best known to the general public for his attempts to make philosophy accessible to those with little or no formal training, but in professional circles his reputation is based on a lifetime pursuit of his distinctive version of a projectivist and anti-realist research program. As he sees things, we must always try first to understand and explain what we are doing when we think and talk as we do. This research program reaches into nearly all of the main areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, and moral psychology. The books and articles he has written provide us with perhaps the most comprehensive statement and defense of projectivism and anti-realism since Hume. The essays collected here document the range and influence of Blackburn''s work. They reveal, among other things,
Trade ReviewThe range and influence of Simon Blackburn's work is reflected in the thematic variety of the contributions to this excellent volume edited by Robert N. Johnson and Michael Smith. The quality of the essays is consistently high, and together they provide a comprehensive, in-depth treatment of Blackburn's many original and controversial ideas * Camil Golub, Journal of Moral Philosophy *
Anyone who has any interest in Blackburn's workor more generally in any version of expressivism, projectivism, prescriptivism, pragmatism, or anti-realismshould get their hands on this volume. The collection certainly provides a fitting, and very personal, tribute to the philosophical themes developed in Blackburn's pioneering workin the sense that many of the contributors, as indicated in the essays, have been profitably engaged with Blackburn's work for decades. * Noell Birondo, The Philosophical Quarterly *
[T]his is a rather good anthology overall, and there is much here for those interested, not simply in the specifics of Blackburn's arguments, but in realism and projectivism as such, largely of course as such things apply to ethics, but to no small extent as these positions apply elsewhere as well * Steven Ross, Philosophical Forum *
Written by a distinguished bunch of philosophers, this wonderful book collects together fourteen papers on various aspects of Blackburn's work. The papers cover what seems like a fitting selection of topics. They are polished, and many of them are a real joy to read. * Teemu Toppinen, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online *
Anyone who has any interest in Blackburn's workor more generally in any version of expressivism, projectivism, prescriptivism, pragmatism, or antirealism should get their hands on this volume. * Noell Birondo, Philosophical Quarterly *
Table of ContentsPART ONE: METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY; PART TWO: METAETHICS AND MORAL PSYCHOLOGY
