Introduction

This chapter provides a brief overview of the two important themes before examining in detail McDowell’s contributions to contemporary philosophical debates. The themes are: the philosophy of nature and the nature of philosophy. John McDowell’s work on L. Wittgenstein is his most significant for us in understanding his approach to philosophy. McDowell holds that philosophy should be practised in a broadly therapeutic, non-theoretical manner. On his curriculum vitae, McDowell lists his major interests as “Greek philosophy; philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics; ethics”. McDowell criticizes the Cartesian view of the mind as a kind of inner space. On the Cartesian view, mental states are thought of as freestanding occupants of a separate inner realm and ontologically independent of the world outside. It is the view of “an inner realm as self-standing, with everything within it arranged as it is independently of external circumstances”. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.