Published in 1998, this book argues that in recent decades, Anglo-American philosophy of language has been captivated by the idea that the key to progress in this area of philosophy lies in investigating the possibility of constructing a theory of meaning. This text provides an in-depth critique of the Davidsonian suggestion that Tarski's work on formal definitions of truth is an important element in allowing us to understand the form that the theory of meaning should take.

No one has figured more prominently in the study of German philosopher Gottlob Frege than Michael Dummett. This highly acclaimed book is a major contribution to the philosophy of language as well as a systematic interpretation of Frege, indisputably the father of analytic philosophy. Frege: Philosophy of Language remains indispensable for an understanding of contemporary philosophy. Harvard University Press is pleased to reissue this classic book in paperback.

This performance of the Richard Strauss opera Arabella with the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera features vocalists such as Emily Magee, Genia Kuhmeier, and Tomasz Konieczny in the leading roles. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A collection of all but two of the author's philosophical essays and lectures originally published or presented before August 1976.

P. A. Schilpp's 'Library of Living Philosophers' is the series which introduced to the philosophical community the format of a volume of essays on the work of a distinguished philosopher, combined with replies to the essays by the philosopher targeted. The format proved attracti ve to a discipline which has always placed a high premium on debate. But the Schilpp series has shown itself unenterprising in its choice of subjects, concentrating on end-of-year reports on philosophers who are of undoubted distinction, but whose contribution to the subject can be regarded as rather definitely over. Which leaves a gap, which the present series is designed to fill, for volumes of a similar format aiming at assessment of philosophers who have distinguished themselves already by making a substan tial impact on their discipline, but whose further work too is awaited with eager anticipation. Michael Dummett is an ideal subject for a series with this goal of mid term assessment. His writings to date have permanently altered philosophy's conception of what is at issue between realism and idealism (and its paler cousin, anti-realism); and this has been achieved by way of a supplementary clarification of a host of issues in the philosophy of language and of mathematics, and of the Frege/Wittgenstein historical tradition from which such issues are typically approached in contemporary philosophy.

The twentieth century was marked by the triumph of the 'analytic' tradition of philosophy, which remains to this day the dominant mainstream of philosophical thought and teaching. In his landmark reflection and exploration of the origins of analytic philosophy, Michael Dummett vividly explores the roots of that tradition in the writings of such German and Austrian thinkers as Frege, Husserl and Wittgenstein. Disputing the notion of analytic philosophy as an 'Anglo-American' tradition, Dummett finds a shared well-spring in the works of the analytic and phenomenological traditions. Now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series, Origins of Analytical Philosophy remains a vital read for anyone interested in the development of twentieth century thought and the history of philosophy.

The present collection of papers derives from a philosophy conference organised in the Sicilian town of M ussomeli in September 1991. The con ference aimed at providing an analysis of certain aspects of the thought of Michael Dummett, whose contributions have been very influential in several aspects of the philosophical debate continuing within the analyt ical tradition. Logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the interpretation of Frege's philosophy, and metaphysics are only some of the areas within which Dummett's ideas have been fruitful over the years. The papers contained in this book, and Dummett's replies, will, it is hoped, not merely offer a partial reconstruction of a philosopher's life work, but provide an exciting and challenging vantage point from which to look at some of the main problems of contemporary philosophy. The First International Philosophy Conference of M ussomeli - this is what the conference was called - was an extraordinary event in many ways. The quality of the papers presented, the international reputa tion of many of the participants, the venue itself, together with the unavoidable, and sometimes quite funny, organisational hiccups, made that meeting memorable. Perhaps principally memorable was the warmth and sympathy of the people of Mussomeli who strongly supported and encouraged this initia tive. A special mention is also due to the City Council Administrators, who spared no effort to make the Conference a success.

Michael Dummett stands out among his generation as the only British philosopher of language to rival in stature the Americans, Davidson and Quine. In conjunction with them he has been responsible for much of the framework within which questions concerning meaning and understanding are raised and answered in the late twentieth-century Anglo-American tradition. Dummett's output has been prolific and highly influential, but not always as accessible as it deserves to be. This book sets out to rectify this situation. Karen Green offers the first comprehensive introduction to Dummett's philosophy of language, providing an overview and summary of his most important arguments. She argues that Dummett should not be understood as a determined advocate of anti-realism, but that his greatest contribution to the philosophy of language is to have set out the strengths and weaknesses of the three most influential positions within contemporary theory of meaning - realism, as epitomised by Frege, the holism to be found in Wittgenstein, Quine and Davidson and the constructivism which can be extracted from Brouwer. It demonstrates that analytic philosophy as Dummett practices it, is by no means an outmoded approach to thinking about language, but that it is relevant both to cognitive science and to phenomenology.

In this short, lucid, rich book Michael Dummett sets out his views about some of the deepest questions in philosophy. The fundamental question of metaphysics is: what does reality consist of? To answer this, Dummett holds, it is necessary to say what kinds of fact obtain, and what constitutes their holding good. Facts correspond with true propositions, or true thoughts: when we know which propositions, or thoughts, in general, are true, we shall know what facts there are in general. Dummett considers the relation between metaphysics, our conception of the constitution of reality, and semantics, the theory that explains how statements are determined as true or as false in terms of their composition out of their constituent expressions. He investigates the two concepts on which the bridge that connects semantics to metaphysics rests, meaning and truth, and the role of justification in a theory of meaning. He then examines the special semantic and metaphysical issues that arise with relation to time and tense. On this basis Dummett puts forward his controversial view of reality as indeterminate: there may be no fact of the matter about whether an object does or does not have a given property. We have to relinquish our deep-held realist understanding of language, the illusion that we know what it is for any proposition that we can frame to be true independently of our having any means of recognizing its truth, and accept that truth depends on our capacity to apprehend it. Dummett concludes with a chapter about God.