KEY PHILOSOPHERS IN

[Pages:267]KEY PHILOSOPHERS IN CONVERSATION

`Interesting, straightforward and wide-ranging, this book is an excellent introduction to the current state of philosophy.'

Nigel Warburton, Open University

`The interviews are typically engaging, informative and free of needless technicalities. They contribute to a real clarification of important views.'

Paul Moser, Loyola University, Chicago

Key Philosophers in Conversation: The Cogito interviews presents twenty of the most important interviews which the philosophical journal Cogito conducted between 1987 and 1996. The following eminent philosophers discuss their writings and philosophical concerns in a direct and accessible manner which will appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike:

Michael Dummett Mary Warnock Willard Van Orman

Quine Roger Scruton Peter Strawson Hilary Putnam

Stephan K?rner Richard Dawkins Alasdair Maclntyre Dan Dennett Hugh Mellor Richard Sorabji David Gauthier

Bernard Williams Adam Morton Derek Parfit Nancy Cartwright John Cottingham Jean Hampton Martha Nussbaum

Covering a wide spectrum of intellectual enquiry, from logic and metaphysics to philosophy of mind, ethics, and political philosophy, the interviews provide an excellent introduction to philosophy in the English-speaking world at the end of the century. The reader already familiar with the work of these thinkers will gain a fresh perspective on their motivations, influences and personal evaluations of their work, while the non-specialist reader will find much that is enthralling and stimulating about the human face of some of the world's leading philosophers today.

Andrew Pyle is former editor of Cogito and is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bristol.

KEY PHILOSOPHERS IN CONVERSATION

The Cogito interviews

Edited by Andrew Pyle

London and New York

First published 1999 by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

? 1999 Selection and editorial matter, Andrew Pyle; individual chapters, the Cogito Society

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British

Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-01680-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-22354-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-18036-8 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-18037-6 (pbk)

CONTENTS

Introduction

vii

ANDREW PYLE

1 Michael Dummett

1

2 Mary Warnock

8

3 Willard Van Orman Quine

17

4 Roger Scruton

26

5 Peter Strawson

36

6 Hilary Putnam

44

7 Stephan K?rner

55

8 Richard Dawkins

65

9 Alasdair Maclntyre

75

10 Dan Dennett

85

11 Hugh Mellor

101

12 Richard Sorabji

114

13 David Gauthier

129

14 Bernard Williams

142

v

CONTENTS

15 Adam Morton

164

16 Derek Parfit

179

17 Nancy Cartwright

196

18 John Cottingham

215

19 Jean Hampton

231

20 Martha Nussbaum

239

vi

INTRODUCTION

The journal Cogito, brainchild of Edo Pivcevic, was launched with a pilot issue in 1986, and had its first full issue in January 1987. For the first two years it was not only edited but also published by the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bristol; then in its third year it was taken on by Carfax of Abingdon. Although its precise form and contents have altered over the years, its mission has remained unchanged: to bring good quality philosophy to a non-specialist readership. Articles had to be short (less than 4,000 words) and clear (avoiding technical jargon), accessible to readers without a formal training in philosophy. There was also an editorial policy of including a more diverse range of materials than the normal scholarly journal: dialogues, short stories, polemics, paradoxes and puzzles have all found space on our pages. Successive editors also strove to preserve a light touch, to enliven the journal with pictures and the occasional dash of humour. We may not always have succeeded, but we have tried to ensure that the journal was never boring.

From the very first issue, a key feature of every number of Cogito has been the interview, invariably given pride of place at the front. Indeed, editors such as myself tend to identify a given number with its interviewee, so that Volume 3 No. 2 became `Hilary Putnam' and Volume 8 No. 1 `Bernard Williams'. Over the years, the interview has consistently been one of our most popular features, read by philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Non-philosophers might find it hard to read and understand the books and articles on which the reputation of a given thinker depends, but anyone can skim through an informal ten-page interview and obtain some sense both of the gist of his or her work and of the personality that lies behind the writings. It is this last feature, surely, which explains the perennial appeal of the interview: however impersonal the arguments of a philosopher may appear, most readers find themselves drawn to look for the subjective factor, the bit of human (often, all-too-human) biography that `explains' the philosophy. Even fellow-professionals found the interviews well worth reading: the interviewee might provide some insight into the philosophical motivation behind a piece of work, gives an overview emphasising some

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