Retrieving Realism

Hubert Dreyfus; Charles Taylor

Published by Harvard University Press 2015

Retrieving Realism

Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674287136

Overview
Contents

About this book

For Descartes, knowledge exists as ideas in the mind that represent the world. In a radical critique, Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor argue that knowledge consists of much more than the representations we formulate in our minds. They affirm our direct contact with reality—both the physical and the social world—and our shared understanding of it.

Author / Editor information

Dreyfus Hubert :

Hubert Dreyfus is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.Taylor Charles :

Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University.

Reviews

This book is a spirited defense of a sensible yet profound idea all too often ignored in mainstream philosophy, namely, that our grip on the world is deeply rooted in contingent interpretations and practices, but that those modes of access to reality do not preclude our—sometimes—coming to see it as it really is ‘in itself.’ Retrieving Realism is a passionate plea that we cannot escape seeing ourselves as being in direct contact with a world that vastly transcends us.
-- Taylor Carman, Barnard College

Two major philosophers are joining forces in order to offer an alternative account to the prevailing picture of the human mind and its cognitive powers. The book will obviously be on the reading list of all who seriously concern themselves with issues in contemporary philosophy when it is, like here, at its best.
-- Vincent Descombes, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Compact and engaging, Retrieving Realism is more approachable than its weighty subject matter might predict…[An] adventurous combination of arguments and mixing of philosophical cultures.
-- Peter Godfrey-Smith Boston Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
ONE. A Picture Held Us Captive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
TWO. Escaping the Picture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
THREE. Checking Beliefs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
FOUR. Contact Theory: The Place of the Preconceptual Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
FIVE. Embodied Understanding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
SIX. Fusing Horizons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
SEVEN. Realism Retrieved Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
EIGHT. Plural Realism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 170

eBook

Published: June 11, 2015
ISBN: 9780674287136