John McDowell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John McDowell
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McDowell in 2007
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John Henry McDowell
7 March 1942 Boksburg, South Africa
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| Alma mater | University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (as issued by University of London) New College, Oxford |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Postanalytic philosophy Pittsburgh School Disjunctivism Foundationalism Perceptual conceptualism Direct realism The New Wittgenstein Aristotelian ethics Hegelianism |
| Doctoral students | Anita Avramides, Alice Crary |
| Other notable students | Sebastian Rödl |
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Main interests
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Metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of perception, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, ethics, meta-ethics |
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Notable ideas
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Perceptual conceptualism naturalized Platonism, moral particularism, disjunctivism |
John Henry McDowell (born March 7, 1942) is a famous philosopher from South Africa. He used to be a fellow at University College, Oxford, and now he is a university professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
McDowell has written about many different areas of philosophy. These include metaphysics (the study of reality), epistemology (the study of knowledge), and ethics (the study of right and wrong). His most important work is in the philosophy of mind (how our minds work) and the philosophy of language (how language works).
In 2010, McDowell received a special award called the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award. He is also a member of important groups like the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the British Academy.
McDowell believes that philosophy can help us understand things better. He thinks philosophy should "leave everything as it is," meaning it helps clear up confusion. It does not try to explain how our thoughts connect to the world. Instead, it helps us see things clearly by looking at problems in new ways.
McDowell often argues against ideas that try to explain everything using only science. He prefers a type of "naturalism" that looks at human nature. He uses ideas from philosophers like Hegel and Wittgenstein to support his views.
Contents
Life and Career of John McDowell
John McDowell was born in Boksburg, South Africa. He earned his first degree at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
In 1963, he moved to Oxford University in England as a Rhodes scholar. He earned more degrees there. From 1966 to 1986, he taught at University College, Oxford.
Later, he joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States. He is now a University Professor there. He has also been a visiting professor at other well-known universities. These include Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
McDowell became a member of the British Academy in 1983. In 1992, he joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities in 2010.
In 1991, McDowell gave the important John Locke Lectures at Oxford University. These lectures later became his famous book, Mind and World. He also gave lectures at Columbia University in 1997 and the University of California at Berkeley in 2006.
The University of Chicago gave him an honorary degree in 2008.
John McDowell's Philosophical Ideas
Early Philosophical Work
McDowell's first published work was about ancient philosophy. He translated and wrote comments on Plato's Theaetetus. This is a famous conversation about knowledge.
In the 1970s, he worked on how language gets its meaning. He helped edit a book called Truth and Meaning. He also edited and published a book by Gareth Evans called The Varieties of Reference.
McDowell argued against the idea that understanding language must involve knowing how to prove something is true. He believed that we understand others from "inside" our own ways of doing things. He thought that trying to understand language from an "outside" view was not helpful.
In his early work, McDowell developed several key ideas:
- He believed in a type of realism that doesn't rely on just what we can sense.
- He stressed that our ability to be objective has human limits.
- He thought that meaning and mind can be seen directly in how people act and speak.
- He created a special theory about how we experience things through our senses.
Understanding Perception
McDowell has a unique idea about how we see or perceive the world. This idea is called disjunctivism. It says that when we truly see something, like a cat on a mat, it's very different from when we are tricked by an illusion.
Some philosophers argue that when you see a real cat and when you think you see a cat (but it's just a trick of light), your mind has something in common. They might call this "sense data." This idea suggests that we don't see the world directly.
McDowell disagrees. He says that while there might be a psychological similarity, it doesn't mean our knowledge is indirect. When we really see something, our experience directly shows us the object. Our experience does not fall short of the actual fact.
This means that a successful perception (seeing the cat) and a failed one (being tricked) are not the same when we think about gaining knowledge. McDowell believes that our thoughts are connected to our social and physical surroundings. This idea is called externalism about the mental.
Ideas on Values and Morality
McDowell also made important contributions to moral philosophy. This area looks at what makes actions right or wrong and how we decide what is good.
He developed a view called "secondary property realism" or "moral sense theory." He suggests that a truly good person has two abilities:
- They understand the right concepts to think about moral situations.
- Their moral beliefs automatically become the most important reasons for their actions. Other reasons become "silent."
McDowell believes this explains why moral reasons feel so powerful and important.
He disagrees with the idea that every action comes from a belief and a desire. Instead, he thinks that a good person's understanding of a situation (their belief) can explain both their action and their desire.
The Reality of Values
McDowell thinks that moral facts can be true or false. He compares values to colors. Colors are not "in the world" for everyone, like someone who can't see colors. But we can't deny that colors are part of our experience and help us understand the world.
He argues that moral properties are real because we have ways to discuss them logically. Also, they help explain parts of our experience that would otherwise be confusing.
McDowell believes that we should judge what is real from "inside" our own practices and ways of thinking. He says there is no special viewpoint outside of our human understanding to say that values are "less real" than things described by science, like quarks.
Later Work: Mind and World
McDowell's later work, especially his book Mind and World (1994), was influenced by philosophers like Kant and Sellars. In this book, he explores how our minds represent the world.
He tries to explain how we are both passive (we receive experiences) and active (we use concepts to understand them) when we perceive the world. He wants to avoid the idea that our minds just create reality.
Mind and World rejects a simple scientific view of human nature. McDowell suggests that our unique mental abilities are a cultural achievement, something we learn and develop as humans. He calls this our "second nature."
In his later work, McDowell also argues against the idea of "nonconceptual content." This is the idea that our experience contains information that isn't organized by our concepts. He says this idea causes confusion. He believes that we need to separate how we use concepts in experience from the causes of that experience.
McDowell's ideas often go against many common views in philosophy today, especially in North America. He continues to emphasize his unique positions on language, mind, and values.
Key Influences on McDowell
Many philosophers have influenced John McDowell's work. Some of the most important include:
- Aristotle
- Immanuel Kant
- G.W.F. Hegel
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Hans-Georg Gadamer
- Philippa Foot
- Iris Murdoch
- Wilfrid Sellars
His colleague at the University of Pittsburgh, Robert Brandom, also explores similar ideas. McDowell has said that the work of Richard Rorty, especially his book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, was very important in shaping his own views.
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See also
In Spanish: John McDowell para niños
