Kirjahaku

An intellectual biography of the American philosopher C. I. Lewis.2006 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Noted scholar-historian Murray G. Murphey explores the life and intellectual work of C. I. Lewis (1883–1964), the central figure in American philosophy between the "golden age" of James and Royce and the later scene of Quine and Goodman, Sellars and Rorty. As professor of philosophy at Harvard and the founder of modal symbolic logic, Lewis taught and deeply influenced a generation of philosophers. Murphey traces the development of Lewis's thought from his early Idealism through his Conceptual Pragmatism and his defense of that position against the onslaught of Logical Positivism in the 1930s and 1940s. He also examines how Lewis developed in a more precise and systematic way the Pragmatism of Peirce, James, and Dewey, while retaining their combination of empiricism and humanism and marshalling the weapons of analytic philosophy in their defense. Detailed attention is given to the important contributions of Lewis's work in logic, epistemology, value theory, meaning, and ethics.

Addresses historical skepticism by presenting histories as testable theories of the past.Setting aside barren issues such as the scientific status of history, Murray G. Murphey develops an empirical approach to historical study that can yield theories (interpretations) that are testable and confirmable. He examines the evidence on which historical theories are based, the types of explanations used, and particularly the way historical theories are tested. The book treats not only the actual process of historical research but also the philosophical problems involved in historical work. The treatment of causation is new, as is the discussion of epistemology. In his discussions, Murphey covers a wide range of sources and examples, including Frederick Jackson Turner, the Gospels, perspectives on the causes of the Great Depression, the Vinland Map, witchcraft, and material culture. The book is addressed to all who do history or write about it, and it will be a useful text for those who teach courses in historiography.