Thought and World: The Hidden Necessities

James F. Ross is a creative and independent thinker in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of mind. In this concise metaphysical essay, he argues clearly and analytically that meaning, truth, impossibility, natural necessity, and our intelligent perception of nature fit together into a distinctly realist account of thought and world. Ross articulates a moderate realism about repeatable natural structures and our abstractive ability to discern them that poses a challenge to many of the common assumptions and claims of contemporary analytic philosophy. He develops a broadly Aristotelian metaphysics that recognizes the hidden necessities of things, which are disclosed through the sciences, which ground his account of real impossibility as a kind of vacuity, and which require the immateriality of the human ability to understand. Those ideas are supported by a novel account of false judgment. Ross aims to offer an analytically and historically respectable alternative to the prevailing positions of many British-American philosophers.

In Thought and World, James F. Ross synthesizes and develops much of his work from the last two decades; and as he did in his two other major works (Philosophical Theology and Portraying Analogy) he challenges many of the common dogmatic assumptions from the mainstream of analytic philosophy. While relentlessly challenging these assumptions from a unique and unorthodox perspective, he is nonetheless able to masterfully articulate his position using the dialect of philosophical discourse in analytic philosophy.--John Zeis, Canisius College

Author: James Ross
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 11/01/2008
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780268040574

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2010

About the Author

James Ross is professor of philosophy and law at the University of Pennsylvania.

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