Faculty of Arts
Department of Philosophy Research Seminars
‘Donald Davidson’s Philosophy of Language’
By
Prof. Joe Friggieri
University of Malta
Donald Davidson was one of the most distinguished and influential philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. His main philosophical concerns were language, the mind and action. He regarded linguistic meaning as inextricably bound up with the beliefs and desires of the users of language, and linguistic interpretation as subject to a set of principles to which he gives the collective name 'the Principle of Charity'. He uses this principle to mount an attack on the possibility of scepticism, the view that our knowledge of the world is somehow insecure. These ideas will form the basis of Professor Joe Friggieri's lecture.
Biographical Note
Joe Friggieri is full professor with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Malta. He has been guest research scholar and lecturer at the universities of Venice, Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Augsburg, Genova, Lancaster, Sassari and Roma Tre. His recent publications include:
Friggieri, J. (2010) ‘Objectivity, evidence and truth in history’, in De Caro, M. and Egidi, R. (eds) The Architecture of Knowledge, Carocci, Roma Tre.
Friggieri, J. (2014) ‘Etiolations’, in Garvey, B. (ed.) J.L. Austin on Language. Palgrave Macmillan.
Friggieri, J. (2015) ‘Persons as Psychophysical Agents and Communicators’, in Valentini, T. and Velardi, A. (eds.) Natura Umana, Persona, Libertà. Libreria Vaticana, Rome.
For more info visit the Department of Philosophy page.