Writing Conversationalists into History

Burton Dreben taught a generation of scholars the value of closely attending to the recent philosophical past. But the few papers he authored do little to capture his philosophical voice. In this article, I turn instead to an unpublished transcript of Dreben in conversation with his contemporaries....

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: James Pearson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MULPress 2022-07-01
Series:Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy
Online Access:https://jhaponline.org/jhap/article/view/4930
Description
Summary:Burton Dreben taught a generation of scholars the value of closely attending to the recent philosophical past. But the few papers he authored do little to capture his philosophical voice. In this article, I turn instead to an unpublished transcript of Dreben in conversation with his contemporaries. In addition to yielding insights into a transitional period in W.V. Quine’s and Donald Davidson’s thought, I argue that this document showcases Dreben in his element, revealing the way that he shaped the views of key analytic philosophers. More broadly, I argue that by writing conversationalists like Dreben into our histories we can capture the collaborative nature of philosophy.
ISSN:2159-0303