Philosophy as Criticism: Essays on Dennett, Searle, Foot, Davidson, Nozick - Tapa blanda

"Ilham Dilman's last book of essays, written when he was dying, is, like all his works, honest, sincere, and written with luminous clarity. When he learnt that he had terminal cancer, he selected five books by five leading philosophers of the day, read them carefully and wrote critical essays about them. Philosophy, Dilman held, is above all, criticism. This is patent in these essays on Dennett, Searle, Foot, Davidson and Nozick. Each essay consists in a meticulous outline of the salient claims of the book under consideration, followed by critical observations. Dilman's final reflections are often profound, sometimes very touching, and always worth reading. His voice will be missed." -- Peter Hacker, Emeritus Research Fellow, St John's College, University of Oxford "This is vintage Dilman. This book could give a new vitality to an unexploited genre: philosophical criticism. Of course, philosophers have always critiqued other philosophers, but a volume of systematic criticism by a single philosopher of various philosophical works is rare. The particular strength of this volume is that it provides a concentrated and textured expression of the author's own philosophical stance, while at the same time offering new scrutiny of the philosophers evaluated. Dilman invariably shakes the reader out of any complacent reading of Dennett, Searle, Foot, Davidson and Nozick, sometimes to the point of prompting a radical questioning of their current status." -- Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire, UK

In this, his final book, noted philosopher Ilham Dilman offers sharp critiques of his major contemporaries. "Philosophy of Criticism" is both the final word from a celebrated philosopher on his distinguished career and an attempt, through critiques of his major contemporaries, to explore the future of philosophy. Born in Turkey, Ilham Dilman spent the majority of his working life teaching philosophy in the United States and Great Britain and published widely in moral philosophy and psychology, most notably on Wittgenstein and Freud. After an autobiographical introduction, in which Dilman reflects on how he came to become a philosopher, he moves, chapter by chapter, into an incisive critique of key contemporary thinkers and movements in philosophy. Dilman asks us to review afresh the contributions of Dennett, Searle, Foot, Davidson and Nozick to the modern debate. The result is a vital and urgent engagement with the core questions of philosophy and a re-instatement of the centrality of criticism in philosophy.