Second Philosophy: A Naturalistic Method

Oxford, England and New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press (2007)
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Abstract

Many philosophers claim to be naturalists, but there is no common understanding of what naturalism is. Maddy proposes an austere form of naturalism called 'Second Philosophy', using the persona of an idealized inquirer, and she puts this method into practice in illuminating reflections on logical truth, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics.

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2009

Call number

B828.2.M33 2007

ISBN(s)

9780199566242   9780199273669   0199273669   0199566240   9780191706264
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Chapters

Introduction

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to delineate and to practice a particularly austere form of naturalism. It coins a new term, ‘Second Philosophy’, to distinguish this form of naturalism from other ‘naturalism’, and introduces an ... see more

Quine's naturalism

The closest ancestor of Second Philosophy is Quine's naturalism. This chapter details the Second Philosopher's departures from Quinean orthodoxy: the Quinean chooses naturalism in response to the failures of first philosophy, the Second Philosopher simply begins in her characteristic ways;... see more

Second philosophy of mathematics

Though extra-mathematical philosophy is irrelevant to the methodological decisions of mathematics, a second-philosophical understanding of the human practice of mathematics requires answers to traditionally philosophical questions of metaphysics and epistemology. This chapter explores thre... see more

Second metaphysics

This final chapter touches on the large question of what Second Philosophy tells us about what there is. Some post-Quinean philosophers have argued for versions of fictionalism, or even felt driven to a kind of ontological nihilism, according to which there are no viable grounds on which t... see more

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Author's Profile

Penelope J. Maddy
University of California, Irvine

Citations of this work

Scientific Realism Made Effective.Porter Williams - 2019 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70 (1):209-237.
A Survey of Logical Realism.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2021 - Synthese 198 (5):4775-4790.

View all 127 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Word and Object.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1960 - Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
Elusive knowledge.David K. Lewis - 1996 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (4):549 – 567.
Word and Object.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1960 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 17 (2):278-279.
Elusive Knowledge.David Lewis - 2000 - In Sven Bernecker & Fred I. Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford University Press.
Elusive Knowledge.David Lewis - 1999 - In Keith DeRose & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader. Oup Usa.

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