Author Description

"Much philosophizing since Descartes in the seventeenth century has convinced legions of students to think life is but a dream and the rest of the world to think philosophers corrupt the morals of youth. The dominant trend in philosophy in the West, however, has taken an entirely different direction from what sensational news stories about deconstructionists say. The leader of this trend is Donald Davidson, who completed this, his first proper book, shortly before his death at 86." "Davidson begins by harking back to an early interest in the classics, and an even earlier engagement with the workings of grammar. In the pleasures of diagramming sentences in grade school, he locates his first glimpse into the mechanics of how we conduct the most important activities in our life - such as declaring love, asking directions, issuing orders, and telling stories. Davidson connects these essential questions with the most basic and yet hard to understand mysteries of language use - how we connect noun to verb. This is a problem that Plato and Aristotle wrestled with, and Davidson draws on their thinking to show how an understanding of linguistic behavior is critical to the formulating of a workable concept of truth. Against a whole army of contemporary philosophers, Davidson argues that the concept of truth is not ambiguous." "Anchored in classical philosophy. Truth and Predication nonetheless makes telling use of the work of a great number of modern philosophers from Tarski and Dewey to Quine and Rorty. Representing the very best of Western thought, it reopens the most difficult and pressing of ancient philosophical problems, and reveals them to be very much of our day."--Jacket.