The philosopher Michael Dummett was one of the sharpest and most prominent commentators and campaigners for the fair treatment of immigrants and refugees in Britain and Europe. On Immigration and Refugees was the only book he wrote on the topic and among one of the most eloquent and important reflections on the subject to have been published in many years. Exploring the confused and often highly unjust and racist thinking about immigration, Dummett questions the principles and jus...

Michael Dummett's approach to the metaphysical issue of realism through the philosophy of language, his challenge to realism, and his philosophy of language itself are central topics in contemporary analytic philosophy and have influenced the work of other major figures such as Quine, Putnam, and Davidson. This book offers an accessible and systematic presentation of the main elements of Dummett's philosophy. This book's overarching theme is Dummett's discussion of realism: his characteriz...

The twentieth century was marked by the triumph of the 'analytic' tradition of philosophy, which remains to this day the dominant mainstream of philosophical thought and teaching. In his landmark reflection and exploration of the origins of analytic philosophy, Michael Dummett vividly explores the roots of that tradition in the writings of such German and Austrian thinkers as Frege, Husserl and Wittgenstein. Disputing the notion of analytic philosophy as an 'Anglo-American' tradition, Dumm...

Michael Dummett's three John Dewey Lectures—"The Concept of Truth," "Statements About the Past," and "The Metaphysics of Time"—were delivered at Columbia University in the spring of 2002. Revised and expanded, the lectures are presented here along with two new essays by Dummett, "Truth: Deniers and Defenders" and "The Indispensability of the Concept of Truth."In Truth and the Past, Dummett clarifies his current positions on the metaphysical issue of realism and the philoso...

Philosophy is a discipline that makes no observations, conducts no experiments, and needs no input from experience. It is an armchair subject, requiring only thought. Yet that thought can advance knowledge in unexpected directions, not only through the discovery of new facts but also through the enhancement of what we already know. Philosophy can clarify our vision of the world and provide exciting ways to interpret it.Of course, philosophy's unified purpose hasn't kept the discipl...

P. A. Schilpp's 'Library of Living Philosophers' is the series which introduced to the philosophical community the format of a volume of essays on the work of a distinguished philosopher, combined with replies to the essays by the philosopher targeted. The format proved attracti ve to a discipline which has always placed a high premium on debate. But the Schilpp series has shown itself unenterprising in its choice of subjects, concentrating on end-of-year reports on philosophers who are of...

Michael Dummett, eminent filosoof en scherpzinnig maatschappijcriticus, pleit al vele jaren voor een eerlijke behandeling van immigranten en vluchtelingen in Europa. In dit inzichtelijke boek heeft hij voor de eerste keer al zijn gedachten over deze belangrijke kwestie gebundeld.Na een eerste verkenning van de verwarde en vaak zeer onrechtvaardige opvattingen over immigratie, onderwerpt Dummett de principes en rechtvaardigingen van het desbetreffende overheidsbeleid aan een nauwkeur...

This collection of classic and contemporary essays in philosophy of language offers a concise introduction to the field for students in graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses. It contains some of the most important basic sources in philosophy of language, including a number of classic essays by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Kripke, Grice, Davidson, Strawson, Austin, and Putnam, as well as more recent contributions by scholars including John McDowell, Stephen...

Published in 1998, this book argues that in recent decades, Anglo-American philosophy of language has been captivated by the idea that the key to progress in this area of philosophy lies in investigating the possibility of constructing a theory of meaning. This text provides an in-depth critique of the Davidsonian suggestion that Tarski's work on formal definitions of truth is an important element in allowing us to understand the form that the theory of meaning should take.