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Contemporary Philosophy

THE PHILOSOPHY OF P.F. STRAWSON edited by Lewis E. Hahn Philosophy August 1998 ($42.95 paper, ISBN: 0812693787; $72.95 cloth, ISBN: 0812693779; 450 pages, glossary, bibliography, index, Open Court) HARDCOVER

Born in 1919, British philosopher and`metaphysician Sir Peter Strawson was a leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy. He is the author of the early and extremely influential paper "On Referring," in which he criticized Russell’s theory of definite descriptions. His most influential book, Individuals, helped to raise the status of metaphysics as a philosophical enterprise. Themes first addressed in this book continued to be of concern to him in his later work, including the possibility of objective knowledge, the subject predicate distinction, the ontological status of persons, and the problem of individuation.

Strawson’s distinction as a teacher and lecturer is largely responsible for his global popularity, as are his conceptions of philosophy and philosophical analysis. For him, a philosopher aims to make clear the character of our fundamental, general, pervasive concepts and their interconnections, and he is a master at this. He shares with Wittgenstein the idea that the essential business of philosophers is to get a clear view of our concepts and their place in our lives.

Following the Library of Living Philosophers series format, this volume contains an intellectual autobiography, twenty critical and descriptive essays by leading philosophers from around the world, Strawson’s replies to the essays, and a bibliography of Strawson’s works.