The Philosophical Papers of Alan Donagan: Historical Understanding and the History of Philosophy

Alan Donagan is known for his theories on the history of philosophy and the nature of morality. The two volumes of his Philosophical Papers collect 28 of Donagan’s most important and best-known essays on historical understanding and ethics from 1957 to 1991, including two never-before-published papers on the history of philosophy as a discipline, and on Ryle and Wittgenstein’s nature of philosophy. Volume 1 includes papers on Spinoza, Descartes, Bradley, Collingwood, Russell and Moore, and Popper. They ar linked by Donagan’s commitment to the central importance of history for philosophy and his interest in problems of historical understanding. Volume 2 addresses issues in the philosophy of action and moral theory. With papers on Kant, von Wright, Sellars, and Chisholm, this volume also covers a range of questions in applied ethics - from the morality of Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ethical questions in medicine and law. Together, these books provide an overview of the major philosophical achievements of an original and sensitive thinker.