Mind, Reason, and Being-in-the-World The McDowell-Dreyfus Debate

John McDowell and Hubert L. Dreyfus are philosophers of world renown, whose work has decisively shaped the fields of analytic philosophy and phenomenology respectively. Mind, Reason, and Being-in-the-World: The McDowell-Dreyfus Debate opens with their debate over one of the most important and controversial subjects of philosophy: is human experience pervaded by conceptual rationality, or does experience mark the limits of reason? Is all intelligibility rational, or is there a form of intelligibility at work in our skilful bodily rapport with the world that eludes our intellectual capacities? McDowell and Dreyfus provide a fascinating insight into some fundamental differences between analytic philosophy and phenomenology, as well as areas where they may have something in common.

Fifteen specially commissioned chapters by distinguished international contributors enrich the debate inaugurated by McDowell and Dreyfus, taking it in a number of different and important directions. Fundamental philosophical problems discussed include: the embodied mind, subjectivity and self-consciousness, intentionality, rationality, practical skills, human agency, and the history of philosophy from Kant to Hegel to Heidegger to Merleau-Ponty. With the addition of these outstanding contributions, Mind, Reason, and Being-in-the-World is essential reading for students and scholars of analytic philosophy and phenomenology.

Introduction, Joseph K. SchearPart 1: A Battle of Myths 1. The Myth of the Pervasiveness of the Mental, Hubert L. Dreyfus 2. The Myth of the Detached Mind, John McDowell Part 2: From Kant to Existential Phenomenology 3. Retrieving Realism, Charles Taylor 4. What is "Conceptual Activity"?, Robert B. Pippin 5. Transcendental Philosophy and the Possibility of the Given, Sebastian Gardner 6. Never Mind: Thinking of Subjectivity in the Dreyfus-McDowell Debate, Lee Braver Part 3: Intellectualism and Understanding 7. Conceptualism and the Scholastic Fallacy, Taylor Carman 8. On Over-intellectualizing the Intellect, Alva Noë 9. Intellectualism, Experience, and Motor Understanding, Charles Siewert Part 4: Experience, Concepts, and Non-Conceptual Content 10. The Given, Tim Crane 11. A Trilemma About Mental Content, Susanna Schellenberg 12. What is the Phenomenon of Conceptual Articulation?, Joseph Rouse Part 5: Bodily Skills, Rationality, and Self-Consciousness 13. Are We Essentially Rational Animals?, Joseph K. Schear 14. A Dancer Reflects, Barbara Montero 15. Mindedness, Mindlessness, and First-Person Authority, Dan Zahavi. Index

Joseph K. Schear is University Lecturer in Philosophy and Official Student (Tutorial Fellow) at Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK.