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Review
Very informative. Library Journal 3/15/10 Dummett's passionate advocacy for philosophy's continuing relevance and his defense of the field against the encroaching tendencies of physics and neurological science are never less than compelling. Publishers Weekly 3/15/10
Review
Very informative. Library Journal 3/15/10 Dummett's passionate advocacy for philosophy's continuing relevance and his defense of the field against the encroaching tendencies of physics and neurological science are never less than compelling. Publishers Weekly 3/15/10
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This brief, succinct work is wonderful. Dummett is a phioosopher of formidable erudition whose mighty tomes on Frege, and his lectures on semantic and mathematical philosophy are often above the heads of university audiences. It is a welcome relief for this reader (five qualifications in philosophy,PhD in logic, publications in philosophy of logic) to find the great man readily intelligible yet still profound.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Title: Dummett Straps Socrates Down For A Lethal Frege Injection
2 May 2011
Format:Paperback
My initial delight upon finding this book at our public library was short. New students of philosophy
should avoid this title. It isn't just that Columbia University Press should be ashamed
to publish a title with typos, a broken Table of Contents, a shockingly amateur cover,
no index, footnotes or suggested reading list, but rather, the juxataposition of
Dummett's intent to kill Plato's universals via his linguistic analysis technique
while at the same time adhering to his traditional Roman Catholic belief system.
My hair is on fire.
Chapter 1 begins with a chirlish tone. Why do universities have philosophy departments
anyway? This seems ironic since Dummett allegedly is "amongst our foremost living
philosophers" as the plug on the back informs. Why would someone at the pinnacle of
academic philosphy begin a book about philosophy on such a sour note? Why not begin
with a normal discussion about philosophy having to do with being about the love of wisdom as one might expect? Still, he does pick his hero: Frge. Later in the book (page 62) that he says "all philosophy students at such universities are required to study him. Required? Why only Frege?
Chapter 2 "What is a Philosophy Question" bypasses the entire history of Western philosophy
and the wonderful contributions from Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
Spinoza, Descartes, and Kant to name just a few, and frames philosophy as the unworthy,
misguided servant of science or as he says "For Quine and some other contemporary philosophers
philosophy is simply the most abstract part of science." Simply?
Chapter 3 "Philosophy as the Grammar of Thought" prepares the injection. Gadimer is set up as the
straw man for Frege to bash. This book is all about advancing Dummett's analytic philosophy views,
it neglects its history and rich traditions of different viewpoints.
But Frege is complex, Dummett doesn't play fair, he later dismisses Frege's
entire third realm of universals as "plainly a piece of philosophical mythology" page 83.
The rest of the chapters are easy on the Roman Catholic Christian religion, and tough on philosophic themes that can't be reduced to "the cat is on the mat" true or false statements. There is no clue as to how continental
and analytic philosophy could be resolved as the plug on the back claimed would occur. The final irony
is that the "Future of Philosophy chapter (only 7 pages long and almost half of that is a long quote from
another author) ends with Dummett claiming that the existence of Christian God will be proven "in the lifetimes
of our great grandchildren." page 151. Did he ever read Kant?
My anger grew as the pages turned. His book reminded me of a documentary I saw about the rise of South African private hunting clubs that feature exotic animals to hunt. As you watched, it wasn't clear if the hunters really cared about the animals at all, or whether their primary interest was the pleasure of killing them. In the same way, I see Dummett as a hunter of philosophic ideas, not interested in their intrinsic worth to the human experience but quite interested in eliminating them.
should avoid this title. It isn't just that Columbia University Press should be ashamed
to publish a title with typos, a broken Table of Contents, a shockingly amateur cover,
no index, footnotes or suggested reading list, but rather, the juxataposition of
Dummett's intent to kill Plato's universals via his linguistic analysis technique
while at the same time adhering to his traditional Roman Catholic belief system.
My hair is on fire.
Chapter 1 begins with a chirlish tone. Why do universities have philosophy departments
anyway? This seems ironic since Dummett allegedly is "amongst our foremost living
philosophers" as the plug on the back informs. Why would someone at the pinnacle of
academic philosphy begin a book about philosophy on such a sour note? Why not begin
with a normal discussion about philosophy having to do with being about the love of wisdom as one might expect? Still, he does pick his hero: Frge. Later in the book (page 62) that he says "all philosophy students at such universities are required to study him. Required? Why only Frege?
Chapter 2 "What is a Philosophy Question" bypasses the entire history of Western philosophy
and the wonderful contributions from Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
Spinoza, Descartes, and Kant to name just a few, and frames philosophy as the unworthy,
misguided servant of science or as he says "For Quine and some other contemporary philosophers
philosophy is simply the most abstract part of science." Simply?
Chapter 3 "Philosophy as the Grammar of Thought" prepares the injection. Gadimer is set up as the
straw man for Frege to bash. This book is all about advancing Dummett's analytic philosophy views,
it neglects its history and rich traditions of different viewpoints.
But Frege is complex, Dummett doesn't play fair, he later dismisses Frege's
entire third realm of universals as "plainly a piece of philosophical mythology" page 83.
The rest of the chapters are easy on the Roman Catholic Christian religion, and tough on philosophic themes that can't be reduced to "the cat is on the mat" true or false statements. There is no clue as to how continental
and analytic philosophy could be resolved as the plug on the back claimed would occur. The final irony
is that the "Future of Philosophy chapter (only 7 pages long and almost half of that is a long quote from
another author) ends with Dummett claiming that the existence of Christian God will be proven "in the lifetimes
of our great grandchildren." page 151. Did he ever read Kant?
My anger grew as the pages turned. His book reminded me of a documentary I saw about the rise of South African private hunting clubs that feature exotic animals to hunt. As you watched, it wasn't clear if the hunters really cared about the animals at all, or whether their primary interest was the pleasure of killing them. In the same way, I see Dummett as a hunter of philosophic ideas, not interested in their intrinsic worth to the human experience but quite interested in eliminating them.
5 of 37 people found the following review helpful
A Wsate of Time
10 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book without reading the above reader's review. I read about 75% of the book. I quit reading after concluding that reading futher would be a waste of my time. I definitely agree with the above reader's review.
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