Donald Davidson (philosopher)

Donald Davidson
Donald Davidson
	Portrait by photographer Steve Pyke in 1990
Born	Donald Herbert Davidson; 6 March 1917; Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	30 August 2003 (aged 86); Oakland, California, U.S.
Education
Education	Harvard University (BA, PhD)
Thesis	Plato's 'Philebus' (1949)
Doctoral advisor	Raphael Demos; Donald Cary Williams
Other advisors	Alfred North Whitehead; Willard Van Orman Quine
Philosophical work
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic; Neopragmatism
Doctoral students	Akeel Bilgrami; Michael Bratman; Kirk Ludwig; Claudine Verheggen; Stephen Yablo
Main interests	Philosophy of language, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, epistemology, ontology
Notable ideas	Radical interpretation, anomalous monism, truth-conditional semantics, principle of charity, slingshot argument, reasons as causes, understanding as translation, swampman, events, Davidson's translation argument against alternative conceptual schemes (the third dogma of empiricism)

Donald Herbert Davidson (March 6, 1917 – August 30, 2003) was an American philosopher. He served as Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1981 to 2003 after having also held teaching appointments at Stanford University, Rockefeller University, Princeton University, and the University of Chicago. Davidson was known for his charismatic personality and difficult writing style, as well as the systematic nature of his philosophy.^[2] His work exerted considerable influence in many areas of philosophy from the 1960s onward, particularly in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and action theory. While Davidson was an analytic philosopher, with most of his influence lying in that tradition, his work has attracted attention in continental philosophy as well, particularly in literary theory and related areas.^[3]

^ Pragmatism – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
^ McGinn, Colin. "Cooling it". London Review of Books. 19 August 1993. Accessed 28 October 2010.
^ Dasenbrock, Reed Way, ed. Literary Theory After Davidson. Penn State Press, 1989.

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[1] Pragmatism – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

[3] McGinn, Colin. "Cooling it". London Review of Books. 19 August 1993. Accessed 28 October 2010.

[4] Dasenbrock, Reed Way, ed. Literary Theory After Davidson. Penn State Press, 1989.

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Donald Davidson
Portrait by photographer Steve Pyke in 1990
Born	Donald Herbert Davidson (1917-03-06)6 March 1917 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	30 August 2003(2003-08-30) (aged 86) Oakland, California, U.S.

Education
Education	Harvard University (BA, PhD)
Thesis	Plato's 'Philebus' (1949)
Doctoral advisor	Raphael Demos Donald Cary Williams
Other advisors	Alfred North Whitehead Willard Van Orman Quine
Philosophical work
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic Neopragmatism^[1]
Doctoral students	Akeel Bilgrami Michael Bratman Kirk Ludwig Claudine Verheggen Stephen Yablo
Main interests	Philosophy of language, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, epistemology, ontology
Notable ideas	Radical interpretation, anomalous monism, truth-conditional semantics, principle of charity, slingshot argument, reasons as causes, understanding as translation, swampman, events, Davidson's translation argument against alternative conceptual schemes (the third dogma of empiricism)^[a]