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The Philosophy of Philosophy

Timothy Williamson (Wiley-Blackwell: Jan 2008), 352 pages.

The second volume in the Blackwell Brown Lectures in Philosophy, this volume offers an original and provocative take on the nature and methodology of philosophy: Based on public lectures at Brown University, given by the pre-eminent philosopher, Timothy Williamson; Rejects the ideology of the ‘linguistic turn’, the most distinctive trend of 20th century philosophy; Explains the method of philosophy as a development from non-philosophical ways of thinking; Suggests new ways of understanding what contemporary and past philosophers are doing. ~ Book Description

Table of Contents

    • Preface     ix
    • Acknowledgments     xi
    • Introduction     1
    • The Linguistic Turn and the Conceptual Turn     10
    • Taking Philosophical Questions at Face Value     23
    • Metaphysical Conceptions of Analyticity     48
    • Epistemological Conceptions of Analyticity     73
    • Knowledge of Metaphysical Modality     134
    • Thought Experiments     179
    • Evidence in Philosophy     208
    • Knowledge Maximization     247
    • Afterword: Must Do Better     278
    • Modal Logic within Counterfactual Logic     293
    • Counterfactual Donkeys     305
    • Bibliography     309
    • Index     322