Donald Davidson

NOTE TO READER: Unfortunately, due to a glitch in Amazon's review system, you can read this review from two different books: The right book: Donald Davidson (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus) edited by Kirk Ludwig The wrong book: Donald Davidson: Meaning, Truth, Language, and Reality written by Leport and Ludwig. Although I recommend both books, this review is for the first book. Davidson's philosophy is very systematic, but very unsystematically presented. It has only been available in bits and pieces--an essay here, an interview there, perhaps some conference proceedings, etc. Getting the big picture was almost as hard as studying a pointalistic painting under a microscope--each dot was there, but how do they form a coherent whole? This circumstance makes the appearance of this book quite fortunate indeed. Each chapter is written by first-rate philosophers who can do a first-rate job of presenting Davidson's philosophy to a newbie audience. A note of caution: as I'm sure the authors themselves would agree, reading this book is NOT a substitute for reading Davidson's essays. This book isn't a substitute for Davidson, but a wide and accessible road which leads to Davidson. After reading this book you will be able to understand and confront Davidson's essays directly--an experience which has profoundly affected even very great philosophers such as Quine and Rorty.