Monday 4 April 2011

Here We Go Again: Great Contemporary Philosopher Jonathan Bennett Offers Many Texts for Free Download – Incl. his Own Translations of Many "Early Modern" Philosophy Classics

So, here we go again. Yet another on my personal Top Ten List of contemporary philosophers, Jonathan Bennett, offers many of his scholarly articles over the years for free download. These papers demonstrate not only the incredible range (analysis of philosophical classics, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and language, moral philosophy....) of Bennett's philosophical abilities and interests, but also one of the most elegant and versatile stylists and sharp minds of anglophone 21st century philosophy. Driven by what comes out as the most attractive mix of a mind stopping at nothing to achieve the ultimate clarity of expression and reasoning and rationality of argument, and a person apparently harboring no need of showing off; just as happily making his case in the simplest of straightforward ways, as effortlessly firing whatever piece in the arsenal of advanced formal method and technical language needed to achieve his aim. And again, just as the other two (1, 2) contemporary philosophers I have been writing about recently, with that attractive attitude of being engaged in an eternal and shared quest where whatever theoretical cathedral that has just been risen in the next step has to be the object of undermining questioning and scrutiny.

And as if all of that is not enough, Bennett also offers his own translations of "early modern" philosophical classics, adapted to have contemporary readers more easily getting the points and subtleties of theses and arguments.