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Mr Strawson on Individuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

B. A. O. Williams
Affiliation:
University College, University of London.

Extract

Mr P. F. Strawson's book Individuals is subtitled An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics. ‘Descriptive metaphysics’, he writes (p. 9), ‘is content to describe the actual structure of our thought about the world’, whereas ‘revisionary metaphysics is concerned to produce a better structure’; it is distinguished from logical or conceptual analysis in scope and generality, rather than in fundamental intention. The book is divided into two parts; in Strawson's words (pp. 11–12), ‘the first part aims at establishing the central position which material bodies and persons occupy among particulars in general. … In the second part of the book the aim is to establish and explain the connexion between the idea of a particular in general and that of an object of reference or logical subject.’

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1961

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References

page 309 note 1 Individuals; by Strawson, P. F.. Methuen. 1959. Pp. 255. 25s. net.Google Scholar