Truth and Predication

“Donald Davidson’s book is a fitting conclusion to his oeuvre. It achieves what is perhaps its main objective in demonstrating the centrality of the concept of truth in the field of the philosophy of language. More, it develops and unifies many of the author’s favourite themes and does so with energy and grace. It is not uncontentious; and it would be less interesting if it were. It makes us the more aware of the loss of one of the most powerful and influential figures of our time.”—P. F. Strawson, The Times Literary Supplement

“Overall, Donald Davidson’s book is a fitting conclusion to his oeuvre. It achieves what is perhaps its main objective in demonstrating the centrality of the concept of truth in the field of the philosophy of language. More, it develops and unifies many of the author’s favourite themes and does so with energy and grace… It makes us the more aware of the loss of one of the most powerful and influential figures of our time.”—P. F. Strawson, Philosophy

“The two philosophers who did the most to persuade us not to take the Cartesian caricature of the human situation seriously were the brilliant and eccentric Ludwig Wittgenstein and Donald Davidson. Davidson’s and Wittgenstein’s writings are not easy for the nonspecialist to grasp. Neither are those of Kant and Hegel. But the work of original and imaginative philosophers such as these, in the course of generations, gradually comes to have an influence on the entire culture. Their criticisms of our intellectual heritage change our sense of what is important to think about. A couple of centuries from now, historians of philosophy will be writing about the changes in the human self-image that Donald Davidson’s writings helped bring about.”—Richard Rorty, The Boston Globe

“When Donald Davidson died unexpectedly on August 30, 2003, the English-speaking world lost one of its most influential philosophers, one who had dominated debates about meaning, mind, and language for 40 years… [Truth and Predication] contains important new ideas, confirming that Davidson’s thought was still as fertile, subtle and provocative as ever.”—E.J. Lowe, The Times Higher Education Supplement

“Davidson was a distinguished philosopher, and the first three chapters of this book constitute his principal statement about the concept of truth. I consider it one of the most important philosophical writings about truth of its time. The remaining chapters give Davidson’s view about a very ancient philosophical problem about predication, often called the ‘unity of the proposition.’ It may be that no one can say anything really definitive about the issue, but Davidson is far more sensitive to the issues involved than most of those who have written on the subject at all recently. They should serve to raise the consciousness of contemporary philosophers of language.”—Charles Parsons, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University