A Companion to Donald Davidson

A Companion to Donald Davidson presents newly commissioned essays by leading figures within contemporary philosophy. Taken together, they provide a comprehensive overview of Davidson’s work across its full range, and an assessment of his many contributions to philosophy.

• Highlights the breadth of Davidson's work across philosophy
• Demonstrates the continuing influence his work has on the philosophical community
• Includes newly commissioned contributions from leading figures in contemporary philosophy
• Provides an in-depth exposition and analysis of Davidson's work across the range of areas to which he contributed, including philosophy of action, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind

Ernest Lepore is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. He is currently Acting Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, and a professor at Rutgers University. He is the co-author with Herman Cappelen of Insensitive Semantics (Blackwell, 2004) and Language Turned On Itself (2007) and co-author with Kirk Ludwig, of Donald Davidson: Meaning, Truth, Language and Reality (2005) and Donald Davidson’s Truth-theoretic Semantics (2007). He is editor of the Handbook of Philosophy of Language (with B. Smith, 2006) and general editor of the Blackwell series Philosophers and Their Critics.

Kirk Ludwig is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington.  He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of Donald Davidson. He is the editor of the volume on Donald Davidson (2003) in the Cambridge Contemporary Philosophy in Focus series, and he is co-author with Ernest Lepore (Rutgers) of Donald Davidson: Meaning, Truth, Language and Reality (2005) and Donald Davidson’s Truth-theoretic Semantics (2007). 

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: Life and Work 1
Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig

Part I Action Theory 13

1 Action Explanation 15
Ralf Stoecker

2 Practical Reason 32
Agnes Callard

3 Action Individuation 48
Hugh J. McCann

4 Freedom to Act 62
Olav Gjelsvik

5 Intention 75
Luca Ferrero

Part II Metaphysics 91

6 Event Variables and Their Values 93
Paul M. Pietroski

7 Causation 126
John Heil

8 Davidson’s “Method of Truth” in Metaphysics 141
William G. Lycan

9 The Concept of Truth 156
Michael Glanzberg

Part III Philosophy of Language 173

10 Truth in the Theory of Meaning 175
Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig

11 Parataxis 191
Adam Sennet

12 Logical Form 208
Miguel Hoeltje

13 Radical Interpretation and the Principle of Charity 225
Peter Pagin

14 Davidson’s Measurement-Theoretic Analogy 247
Piers Rawling

15 Reference 264
J. Robert G. Williams

16 Language and Thought 287
A.P. Martinich

17 Conceptual Schemes 300
David Henderson

18 Interpretation and Value 314
Robert H. Myers

19 Predication 328
Jeff Speaks

20 Convention and Meaning 339
Kathrin Glüer

21 Metaphor and Varieties of Meaning 361
Elisabeth Camp

22 Davidson and Literary Theory 379
Samuel C. Wheeler III

Part IV Philosophy of Mind 393

23 The Larger Philosophical Signifi cance of Holism 395
Carol Rovane

24 Anomalous Monism 410
Brian P. McLaughlin

25 Triangular Externalism 443
Sven Bernecker

26 Triangulation 456
Claudine Verheggen

27 Rationality as a Constitutive Ideal 472
Michael Rescorla

28 Irrationality 489
Sarah Stroud

29 The Rationality of the Emotions 506
Mitchell Green

Part V Epistemology 519

30 Davidson and Radical Skepticism 521
Duncan Pritchard

31 First-Person Authority 533
William Child

32 Knowledge of Other Minds in Davidson’s Philosophy 550
Anita Avramides

Part VI Influences and Influence 565

33 Quine and Davidson 567
Hans-Johann Glock

34 Davidson and Contemporary Philosophy 588
Pascal Engel

Name Index 605

General Index 609

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