The Rediscovery of Common Sense Philosophy
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: October 2, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780230002463
Subjects: Analytical & linguistic philosophy; Natural Selection; Philosophy; Logic; Philosophy / Logic; Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Life Sciences - Evolution; Metaphysics
Description: How should one go about conducting the business of philosophy? And what should we make of the paradoxical conclusions defended by the great and the good of the discipline? In this book it is argued that, contrary to common practice, philosophical paradoxes and counter-intuitive theses ought to be taken as clear indications that errors of one form or another have been committed. The author presents a new account, defense, and illustration of this meta-philosophy of common sense, drawing on a variety of sources including the work of Aristotle, Reid, Moore, Ryle, Austin and Grice, current thinking in evolutionary biology and psychology, as well as an historically informed view of the origins of the 'spirit of modernity' so clearly exemplified by Descartes. This approach to philosophy is then illustrated in a series of studies on topical issues ranging from metaphysics to ethics.