Connections to The World Basic Concepts of Philosophy

Examining the work of Plato, Descartes, Hume and Wittgenstein, this introduction to the central topics of Western philosophical thought explores debates about empiricism, the mind/body problem, the nature of matter, and the status of language, consciousness and scientific explanation. Arthur C. Danto's lucid introduction to the central topics of Western philosophical thought remains an unparalleled guide to problems in metaphysics and epistemology that have engaged philosophers for several millennia. Examining the work of Plato, Berkeley, Descartes, Hume, and Wittgenstein, Danto explores debates about empiricism, the mind/body problem, the nature of matter, and the status of language, consciousness, and scientific explanation. In a new preface to this edition he considers the current relationship between philosophy and the humanities.