Abstract

As the title indicates, Dummett here focuses on events of the past which are, as he acknowledges, philosophically troubling and are crucial tests of the antirealist position. These essays do additionally present the reader with a fine comprehensive, thorough, condensed review of some of Dummett’s key positions on the philosophy of language, with his most recent reconsiderations, corrections, and engagements with other noted philosophers such as Richard Rorty and the late Donald Davidson and Bernard Williams. This book reflects the virtue of Dummett’s work, that is, that his essays or books are renewed attempts to get his ideas right. The present essays, for example, take a position greatly at variance with the position he had taken in his yet unpublished Gifford Lectures of a few years ago.