The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century PhilosophyPart memoir, part study, The Making of a Philosopher is the self–portrait of a deeply intelligent mind as it develops over a life on both sides of the Atlantic. The Making of a Philosopher follows Colin McGinn from his early years in England reading Descartes and Anselm, to his years in the states, first in Los Angeles, then New York. McGinn presents a contemporary academic take on the great philosophical figures of the twentieth century, including Bertrand Russell, Jean–Paul Sartre, and Noam Chomsky, alongside stories of the teachers who informed his ideas and often became friends and mentors, especially the colorful A.J. Ayer at Oxford. McGinn's prose is always elegant and probing; students of contemporary philosophy and the general reader alike will absorb every page. |
From inside the book
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... mental development. My life started to shift to my head, at least in part. Up to now, developing physical coordination had been my chief concern, what with the sports and the drumming, but now my mind started to crave activity too. It ...
... mental items. The only reality we ever literally perceive is a virtual reality, a shadow world of fleeting sensations. Hence the philosophers' description of the ordinary view of perception as “naive realism”: We no more really perceive ...
... mental sense-data. It is like trying to meet the head of state and only getting as far as her emissaries. Your direct awareness stops at the level of sense-data and does not reach out and catch hold of actual physical objects. Maybe we ...
... mental reality with its own logic and agenda—as he did with neurotic symptoms, slips of the tongue, jokes, and so on. By analyzing these phenomena and applying suitable theoretical constructs, Freud makes the meaningless intelligible ...
Contents
Chapter Three Logic and Language | |
Chapter Four Mind and Reality | |
Chapter Five Belief Desire and Wittgenstein | |
Chapter Six Consciousness and Cognition | |
Chapter Seven Metaphilosophy and Fiction | |
Chapter Eight Evil Beauty and Logic | |
Acknowledgments | |
Other editions - View all
The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy Colin McGinn Limited preview - 2003 |
The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-century Philosophy Colin McGinn No preview available - 2003 |
The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy Colin McGinn No preview available - 2002 |