{"product_id":"empty-ideas-peter-unger-9780199330812","title":"Empty Ideas: A Critique of Analytic Philosophy","description":"Peter Unger's provocative new book poses a serious challenge to contemporary analytic philosophy, arguing that to its detriment it focuses the predominance of its energy on \"empty ideas.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the mid-twentieth century, philosophers generally agreed that, by contrast with science, philosophy should offer no substantial thoughts about the general nature of concrete reality. Leading philosophers were concerned with little more than the semantics of ordinary words. For example: Our word \"perceives\" differs from our word \"believes\" in that the first word is used more strictly than the second. While someone may be correct in saying \"I \u003cem\u003ebelieve\u003c\/em\u003e there's a table before me\" \u003cem\u003ewhether or not there is\u003c\/em\u003e a table before her, she will be correct in saying \"I \u003cem\u003eperceive\u003c\/em\u003e there's a table before me\" \u003cem\u003eonly if there is\u003c\/em\u003e a table there. Though just a parochial idea, whether or not it is correct does make a difference to how things are with concrete reality. In Unger's terms, it is a \u003cem\u003econcretely substantial idea\u003c\/em\u003e. Alongside each such parochial substantial idea, there is an analytic or conceptual thought, as with the thought that someone may believe there is a table before her whether or not there is one, but she will perceive there is a table before her only if there is a table there. Empty of import as to how things are with concrete reality, those thoughts are what Unger calls \u003cem\u003econcretely empty ideas\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt is widely assumed that, since about 1970, things had changed thanks to the advent of such thoughts as the content externalism championed by Hilary Putnam and Donald Davidson, various essentialist thoughts offered by Saul Kripke, and so on. Against that assumption, Unger argues that, with hardly any exceptions aside from David Lewis's theory of a plurality of concrete worlds, all of these recent offerings are concretely empty ideas. Except when offering parochial ideas, Peter Unger maintains that mainstream philosophy still offers hardly anything beyond concretely empty ideas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter Unger\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0199330816\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199330812\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/14\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 274\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2015 pg. 1672","brand":"Peter Unger","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44054708683007,"sku":"9780199330812","price":88.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d6169b78-3d84-4376-a491-9d846daef0ab.jpg?v=1685031529","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/empty-ideas-peter-unger-9780199330812","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}