Maximilian De Gaynesford's Books

John McDowell

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

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John McDowell has set the philosophical world alight with a revolutionary approach to the subject, illuminating old problems with dazzling particularity. In this welcome introduction to his work, Maximilian de Gaynesford puts writing within comfortable reach of non-specialists. The guiding argument of the book is that the variety of McDowell's interests disguises a core concern with a single basic goal: 'giving philosophy peace'. Since the dawn of the subject, philosophy has struggled with the question: can our experience of the world give rational support to what we think and say; and if so, how? McDowell claims that philosophy has itself to blame if these questions seem problematic, and this book's animating purpose is to see what sense can be made of this notorious claim. In McDowell's view, the illusion that our fundamental relations with the world are truly problematic is traceable to false views about nature. We should give proper weight to a natural fact about the world: that human beings are of a kind that is naturally placed within the natural order. De Gaynesford analyses McDowell's densely argued and meticulous work in a lucid, balanced and engaging way, that will prove invaluable for all students and scholars of McDowell and philosophy.

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Page Count

224

Publisher

Polity

Published Date

ISBN 10

0745630375

ISBN 13

9780745630373

The Rift in The Lute

Attuning Poetry and Philosophy

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

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The Rift in The Lute

Attuning Poetry and Philosophy

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

What is it for poetry to be serious and to be taken seriously? What is it to be open to poetry, exposed to its force, attuned to what it says and alive to what it does? These are important questions that call equally on poetry and philosophy. But poetry and philosophy, notoriously, have an ancient quarrel. Maximilian de Gaynesford sets out to understand and convert their mutual antipathy into something mutually enhancing, so that we can begin to answer these and other questions. The key to attuning poetry and philosophy lies in the fact that poetic utterances are best appreciated as doing things. For it is as doing things that the speech act approach in analytic philosophy of language tries to understand all utterances. Taking such an approach, this book offers ways to enhance our appreciation of poetry and to develop our understanding of philosophy. It explores work by a range of poets from Chaucer to Geoffrey Hill and J. H. Prynne, and culminates in an extended study of Shakespeare's Sonnets. What work does poetry set itself, and how does this determine the way it is to be judged? What do poets commit themselves to, and what they may be held responsible for? What role does a poet have, or their audience, or their context, in determining the meaning of a poem, what work it is able to achieve? These are the questions that an attuned approach is able to ask and answer.

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Page Count

447

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192517821

ISBN 13

9780192517821

How to be Radical in Philosophy

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

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How to be Radical in Philosophy

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

Radicality is at the very heart of philosophy. Sustaining this lifeblood of progressive thinking means refashioning philosophy constantly. It means engaging with the fundamental issues of living, working, thinking and dying. Otherwise, philosophy loses touch with what matters and dies away itself. This book presents five very different ways philosophy can stay radically engaged: by taking its stand on reason (like Descartes), experience (like Locke), action (like Marx), analysis (like Adorno) or self-criticism (like Heidegger). The result is a much-needed guide for philosophers of all levels of experience, helping to identify the best ways to be, and continue to be, radical. These five ways of being radical are united by their extraordinarily audacious approach to seeking out the roots of things and in engaging in issues that matter to everyone. What can we know for certain? What is our nature? What do we need to live a genuinely human existence? As the book proceeds, another more disturbing connection stands out: each path starts by identifying something disastrously wrong with previous ways of doing philosophy, and thus heads out in a completely different direction, but each ends up in the very same confusion that it tried to escape. Maximilian de Gaynesford explores this paradox: philosophy must be radical to be relevant and connected, but radicalism threatens to undermine philosophy, critically engaging with positions and arguments on both sides. The book invites the reader on a fascinating journey, straightens out the labyrinths of modern philosophy and sheds light on this Covid / post-Trump age, where the stimulus to philosophize remains more alive and active than ever.

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Page Count

233

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

135033703X

ISBN 13

9781350337039

I: The Meaning of the First Person Term

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

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I: The Meaning of the First Person Term

By: Maximilian de Gaynesford

I is perhaps the most important and the least understood of our everyday expressions. This is a constant source of philosophical confusion. Max de Gaynesford offers a remedy: he explains what this expression means, its logical form and its inferential role. He thereby shows the way to an understanding of how we express first-personal thinking. He dissolves various myths about how I refers, to the effect that it is a pure indexical. His central claim is that thekey to understanding I is that it is the same kind of expression as the other singular personal pronouns, you and he/she: a deictic term, whose reference depends on making an individual salient. He addresses epistemological questions as well as semantic questions, and shows how they interrelate.The book thus not only resolves a key issue in philosophy of language, but promises to be of great use to people working on problems in other areas of philosophy.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199287821

ISBN 13

9780199287826

The Rift in the Lute

Attuning Poetry and Philosophy

By: Maximilian De Gaynesford

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The Rift in the Lute

Attuning Poetry and Philosophy

By: Maximilian De Gaynesford

What is it for poetry to be serious and to be taken seriously? What is it to be open to poetry, attuned to what it says, alive to what it does? These questions call equally on poetry and philosophy, but poetry and philosophy have an ancient quarrel. Maximilian de Gaynesford converts their mutual antipathy into something mutually enhancing.

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Page Count

312

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198797265

ISBN 13

9780198797265

Hilary Putnam

By: Maximilian De Gaynesford

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Hilary Putnam

By: Maximilian De Gaynesford

Putnam is one of the most influential philosophers of recent times, and his authority stretches far beyond the confines of the discipline. However, there is a considerable challenge in presenting his work both accurately and accessibly. This is due to the width and diversity of his published writings and to his frequent spells of radical re-thinking. But if we are to understand how and why philosophy is developing as it is, we need to attend to Putnam's whole career. He has had a dramatic influence on theories of meaning, semantic content, and the nature of mental phenomena, on interpretations of quantum mechanics, theory-change, logic and mathematics, and on what shape we should desire for future philosophy. By presenting the whole of his career within its historical context, de Gaynesford discovers a basic unity in his work, achieved through repeated engagements with a small set of hard problems. By foregrounding this integrity, the book offers an account of his philosophy that is both true to Putnam and helpful to readers of his work.

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