Paul F. Snowdon's Books

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

By: Paul F. Snowdon

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The starting point for this book is a particular answer to a question that grips many of us: what kind of thing are we? The particular answer is that we are animals (of a certain sort)—a view nowadays called 'animalism'. This answer will appear obvious to many but on the whole philosophers have rejected it. Paul F. Snowdon proposes, contrary to that attitude, that there are strong reasons to believe animalism and that when properly analysed the objections against it that philosophers have given are not convincing. One way to put the idea is that we should not think of ourselves as things that need psychological states or capacities to exist, any more that other animals do. The initial chapters analyse the content and general philosophical implications of animalism—including the so-called problem of personal identity, and that of the unity of consciousness—and they provide a framework which categorises the standard philosophical objections. Snowdon then argues that animalism is consistent with a perfectly plausible account of the central notion of a 'person', and he criticises the accounts offered by John Locke and by David Wiggins of that notion. In the two next chapters Snowdon argues that there are very strong reasons to think animalism is true, and proposes some central claims about animal which are relevant to the argument. In the rest of the book the task is to formulate and to persuade the reader of the lack of cogency of the standard philosophical objections, including the conviction that it is possible for the animal that I would be if animalism were true to continue in existence after I have ceased to exist, and the argument that it is possible for us to remain in existence even when the animal has ceased to exist. In considering these types of objections the views of various philosophers, including Nagel, Shoemaker, Johnston, Wilkes, and Olson, are also explored. Snowdon concludes that animalism represents a highly commonsensical and defensible way of thinking about ourselves, and that its rejection by philosophers rests on the tendency when doing philosophy to mistake fantasy for reality.

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269

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OUP Oxford

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191030309

ISBN 13

9780191030307

Essays on Perceptual Experience

By: Paul F. Snowdon

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Essays on Perceptual Experience

By: Paul F. Snowdon

A central figure in Anglo-American philosophy for over four decades, Paul F. Snowdon made seminal contributions to the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and the history of twentieth-century philosophy. Snowdon's work on perception and perceptual experience--much of which is collected in this volume for the first time--was particularly influential and firmly established 'disjunctivism' as a view with which any theorist working in the field must reckon. In the essays collected in the first part of this volume, Snowdon traces the contours of the concept of perception, refining his formulation of the disjunctivist position, determining the degree of involvement of the concept of causation, and engaging critically with arguments which aim to support sense-data theories. The second part contains critical examinations of the views propounded by several influential philosophers, amounting to a partial sketch of the history of twentieth-century philosophy of perception. Among the figures whose work Snowdon engages are J. L. Austin, A. J. Ayer, Michael Ayers, Michael Hinton, John McDowell, G. E. Moore, H. H. Price, Wilfrid Sellars, P. F. Strawson, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The volume opens with a robust and intellectually generous introduction in which Snowdon describes the theoretical challenges, approaches, and themes that animate the set of interrelated problems addressed across all sixteen essays. Sprinkled throughout are an array of candid reflections that serve to illuminate both the substantive connections between the essays as well as the historical and circumstantial contexts that occasioned their writing.

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Page Count

397

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198926243

ISBN 13

9780198926245

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

By: Paul F. Snowdon

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Persons, Animals, Ourselves

By: Paul F. Snowdon

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269

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OUP Oxford

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ISBN 10

0191030309

ISBN 13

9780191030307

The Rough Guide to Wales

By: Catherine Le Nevez,Paul Whitfield,Mike Parker

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The Rough Guide to Wales

By: Catherine Le Nevez,Paul Whitfield,Mike Parker

The guide includes hundreds of listings of the all the top places to eat, drink and stay, whatever your budget. There is plenty of good advice on outdoor pursuits, including some of the best mountain and coastal walks, and activities from surfing on the Gower to climbing in Snowdonia.

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549

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1848360509

ISBN 13

9781848360501

Book's by Paul F. Snowdon

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

Essays on Perceptual Experience

Essays on Perceptual Experience

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

Persons, Animals, Ourselves

The Rough Guide to Wales

The Rough Guide to Wales

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