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'''James Ferguson Conant''' (born June 10, 1958) is an American [[philosopher]] who has written extensively on topics in [[philosophy of language]], [[ethics]], and [[metaphilosophy]]. He is perhaps best known for his writings on [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]], and his association with the [[New Wittgenstein]] school of Wittgenstein interpretation initiated by [[Cora Diamond]].<ref>''The New Wittgenstein.'' [[Alice Crary]] and Rupert Read (eds.). Routledge, 2000</ref>
'''James Ferguson Conant''' (born June 10, 1958) is an American philosopher at the [[University of Chicago]] who has written extensively on topics in [[philosophy of language]], [[ethics]], and [[metaphilosophy]]. He is perhaps best known for his writings on [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]], and his association with the [[New Wittgenstein]] school of Wittgenstein interpretation initiated by [[Cora Diamond]].<ref>''The New Wittgenstein.'' [[Alice Crary]] and Rupert Read (eds.). Routledge, 2000</ref>


==Life and career==
==Life and career==
Conant was born in [[Kyoto, Japan]] to American parents. He is the grandson of former Harvard University president [[James Bryant Conant]]. At 14, he attended [[Phillips Exeter Academy]]. He received his A.B. in Philosophy and History of Science from [[Harvard College]] in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from [[Harvard University]] in 1990. He joined the philosophy faculty at the [[University of Pittsburgh]] from 1990-1999, and then became Professor of Philosophy at the [[University of Chicago]]. In December, 2012, he became co-director of the Center for Analytic German Idealism<ref name=":0" /> at Leipzig University, and in July, 2017 he was appointed Humboldt Professor of Philosophy<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/mitarbeiter/prof-dr-james-ferguson-conant/|title=Prof. Dr. James Ferguson Conant {{!}} Philosophie|website=www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de|language=de-DE|access-date=2018-09-24}}</ref> at Leipzig University. He remains as an adjunct professor at Leipzig.<ref>ttps://www.uni-leipzig.de/en/profile/mitarbeiter/prof-james-ferguson-conant</ref>
Conant was born in [[Kyoto, Japan]], to American parents. He is the grandson of former Harvard University president [[James Bryant Conant]]. At 14, he attended [[Phillips Exeter Academy]]. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and History of Science from [[Harvard College]] in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from [[Harvard University]] in 1990. He joined the philosophy faculty at the [[University of Pittsburgh]] from 1990-1999, and then became Professor of Philosophy at the [[University of Chicago]]. In December, 2012, he became co-director of the Center for Analytic German Idealism<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.fagi.uni-leipzig.de/people-2/fagi/directors/|title=Directors {{!}} FAGI Leipzig|website=www.fagi.uni-leipzig.de|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-24}}</ref> at Leipzig University, and in July, 2017 he was appointed Humboldt Professor of Philosophy<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/mitarbeiter/prof-dr-james-ferguson-conant/|title=Prof. Dr. James Ferguson Conant {{!}} Philosophie|website=www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de|language=de-DE|access-date=2018-09-24|archive-date=2018-05-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524073225/http://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/mitarbeiter/prof-dr-james-ferguson-conant/|url-status=dead}}</ref> at Leipzig University. He remains as an adjunct professor at Leipzig.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.uni-leipzig.de/en/profile/mitarbeiter/prof-james-ferguson-conant | title=Prof. James Ferguson Conant }}</ref>


==Philosophical work==
==Philosophical work==
Since the mid 1990s Conant, together with [[Cora Diamond]] has advanced a “resolute reading” of Wittgenstein's early work which seeks to expose neglected underlying continuities between the philosopher's early and later approaches to philosophy, especially between his early ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'' and his later ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]''.
Since the mid 1990s Conant, together with [[Cora Diamond]] has advanced a “resolute reading” of Wittgenstein's early work which seeks to expose neglected underlying continuities between the philosopher's early and later approaches to philosophy, especially between his early ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'' and his later ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]''. Conant has contributed to other areas in the history of analytic philosophy, writing particularly about the work of [[Gottlob Frege]], of [[Rudolf Carnap]], as well as about the relation between the views of both of these figures and those of Wittgenstein. A related theme running throughout Conant's work is the relation between the ideas of [[Immanuel Kant]], and the Kantian tradition more broadly, and the analytic tradition.<ref name=analytickantianism>See James Conant (ed.) ''Analytic Kantianism'', ''Philosophical Topics'', Vol. 34, Nos. 1 & 2</ref>


⚫
A recurring topic throughout Conant’s work is also that of philosophical [[skepticism]]. In this connection, he has drawn a distinction between two varieties of skepticism, which he calls “Cartesian skepticism” and “Kantian skepticism” respectively.<ref name=varieties>"Varieties of Skepticism," in ''Wittgenstein and Skepticism'', ed. by Denis McManus, (Routledge Press, 2004)</ref>
Conant has contributed to other areas in the history of analytic philosophy, writing particularly about the work of [[Gottlob Frege]], of [[Rudolf Carnap]], as well as about the relation between the views of both of these figures and those of Wittgenstein. A related theme running throughout Conant's work is the relation between the ideas of [[Immanuel Kant]], and the Kantian tradition more broadly, and the analytic tradition.<ref name=analytickantianism>See James Conant (ed.) ''Analytic Kantianism'', ''Philosophical Topics'', Vol. 34, Nos. 1 & 2</ref>
<br />


⚫
In 2020, [[Harvard University Press]] published the 1100-page volume ''The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics'', edited by Sofia Miguens.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Logical Alien : Conant and his Critics|others=Miguens, Sofia|date = 11 February 2020|isbn=9780674335905|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press|oclc=1089955691}}</ref> The volume gathers Conant’s 1991 article ''The Search for Logically Alien Thought'' with reflections on it by eight philosophers: Jocelyn Benoist, [[Matthew Boyle]], Martin Gustafsson, Arata Hamawaki, [[Adrian William Moore|Adrian Moore]], [[Barry Stroud]], Peter Sullivan, and Charles Travis — followed by Conant’s responses to them.
Although his philosophical orientation is largely that of someone trained in the analytic tradition, Conant has also written a series of essays on various so-called “Continental" Philosophers, most notably on [[Kierkegaard]] and on [[Nietzsche]]. In his readings of specific texts by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, he explores the theme of how the literary form of a philosophical text is intertwined with its philosophical content.<ref name=KierkegaardNietzsche>See, for example, "Putting Two and Two Together: Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein and the Point of View for Their Work as Authors", in ''The Grammar of Religious Belief'', edited by D.Z. Phillips, St. Martins Press, NY: 1996; "Must We Show What We Cannot Say?" in ''The Senses of Stanley Cavell'', edited by R. Fleming and M. Payne, Bucknell University Press, 1989; "Nietzsche's Perfectionism: A Reading of Schopenhauer as Educator," in ''Nietzsche's Postmoralism'', edited by Richard Schacht, CUP, 2000; "The Dialectic of Perspectivism" in ''Sats - Nordic Journal of Philosophy'', Vol 6, No 2 (2005) and Vol 7, No 1 (2006).</ref> Relatedly, Conant has written a number of essays exploring the treatment of philosophical ideas in literary texts, ranging from the short stories of [[Franz Kafka]] to the novels of [[George Orwell]].<ref name=KafkaOrwell>"In the Electoral Colony: Kafka in Florida," in ''Critical Inquiry'', Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 2001), pp. 662-702; "Freedom, Cruelty and Truth: Rorty versus Orwell," in ''Richard Rorty and His Critics'', edited by Robert Brandom, Blackwell, 2000</ref>
<br />
⚫
A recurring topic throughout Conant’s work is that of philosophical [[skepticism]]. In this connection, he has drawn a distinction between two varieties of skepticism, which he calls “Cartesian skepticism” and “Kantian skepticism” respectively.<ref name=varieties>"Varieties of Skepticism," in ''Wittgenstein and Skepticism'', ed. by Denis McManus, (Routledge Press, 2004)</ref>

Another major research area of Conant’s is the history of analytic philosophy. In 2017, together with Jay Elliott, he brought out a comprehensive volume in the Norton Anthologies series, titled ''After Kant: The Analytic Tradition'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Norton anthology of western philosophy : after Kant|others=Schacht, Richard, 1941-, Rukgaber, Mathew,, Conant, James,, Elliott, Jay|year = 2017|isbn=9780393929072|edition= First|location=New York|oclc=914594581}}</ref> covering the entire range of the analytic tradition in philosophy from its beginnings to the present.

⚫
In 2020, Harvard University Press published the 1100-page volume ''The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics'', edited by Sofia Miguens.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Logical Alien : Conant and his Critics|others=Miguens, Sofia|date = 11 February 2020|isbn=9780674335905|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press|oclc=1089955691}}</ref> The volume gathers Conant’s 1991 article ''The Search for Logically Alien Thought'' with reflections on it by eight distinguished philosophers: Jocelyn Benoist, Matthew Boyle, Martin Gustafsson, Arata Hamawaki, [[Adrian William Moore|Adrian Moore]], [[Barry Stroud]], Peter Sullivan, and Charles Travis — followed by Conant’s wide-ranging set of responses to them.


==Awards==
==Awards==
In 2016, Conant was one of three academics from abroad selected to receive Germany’s top international research award, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Research Prize.<ref name=":1" />
In 2016, Conant was one of three academics from abroad selected to receive Germany’s top international research award, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Research Prize.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Press release of 27.10.2016|url=http://www.uni-leipzig.de/service/kommunikation/medienredaktion/nachrichten.html?ifab_modus=detail&ifab_id=6813|access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref>


In 2012 James Conant received the Humboldt Foundation Anneliese Maier Research Award, a five-year award to promote the internationalisation of the humanities and social sciences in Germany.<br />
In 2012 James Conant received the Humboldt Foundation Anneliese Maier Research Award, a five-year award to promote the internationalisation of the humanities and social sciences in Germany.<br />
In summer 2011, the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto in Portugal hosted a conference titled ''The Logical Alien at 20'', dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the publication of James Conant's paper "The Search for Logically Alien Thought".
In summer 2011, the Institute of Philosophy of the [[University of Porto]] in Portugal hosted a conference titled ''The Logical Alien at 20'', dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the publication of James Conant's paper "The Search for Logically Alien Thought".


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* ''Hilary Putnam: Realism with a Human Face'' (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990
* ''Hilary Putnam: Realism with a Human Face'' (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990.
* "The Search for Logically Alien Thought: Descartes, Kant, Frege and the Tractatus" in ''The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam'', ''Philosophical Topics'', Vol. 20, No. 1 (1991), pp.&nbsp;115–180.
* "The Search for Logically Alien Thought: Descartes, Kant, Frege and the Tractatus" in ''The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam'', ''Philosophical Topics'', Vol. 20, No. 1 (1991), pp.&nbsp;115–180.
* ''Hilary Putnam: Words and Life'' (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994
* ''Hilary Putnam: Words and Life'' (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994.
* ''Thomas Kuhn: The Road Since Structure'' (co-editor with John Haugeland), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2000
* ''Thomas Kuhn: The Road Since Structure'' (co-editor with John Haugeland), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2000.
* ''Pragmatism and Realism'' (co-editor), Routledge, London, 2002
* ''Pragmatism and Realism'' (co-editor), Routledge, London, 2002.
* "The Method of the Tractatus", in ''From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy'', edited by Erich H. Reck, Oxford University Press, 2002
* "The Method of the Tractatus", in ''From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy'', edited by Erich H. Reck, Oxford University Press, 2002.
* ''Rileggere Wittgenstein'' (co-author with Cora Diamond), with a Foreword by Piergiorgio Donatelli and an Afterword by Silver Bronzo, Carocci, Rome, 2010
* ''Rileggere Wittgenstein'' (co-author with Cora Diamond), with a Foreword by Piergiorgio Donatelli and an Afterword by Silver Bronzo, Carocci, Rome, 2010.
* ''Orwell ou le Pouvoir de la Verite'' (Agone, 2011)
* ''Orwell ou le Pouvoir de la Verite'' (Agone, 2011).
*''Friedrich Nietzsche: Perfektionismus & Perspektivismus'' tr. by Joachim Schulte, Konstanz University Press, 2014.
*''Friedrich Nietzsche: Perfektionismus & Perspektivismus'' tr. by Joachim Schulte, Konstanz University Press, 2014.
* ''Varieties of Skepticism: Essays after Kant, Wittgenstein, and Cavell'' (co-edited with Andrea Kern), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2014.
* ''Varieties of Skepticism: Essays after Kant, Wittgenstein, and Cavell'' (co-edited with Andrea Kern), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2014.
*''The Norton Anthology of Western Philosophy: After Kant'', WW Norton & Co, 2017
*''The Norton Anthology of Western Philosophy: After Kant'', WW Norton & Co, 2017.
*''The Logical Alien: Conant and his Critics'', Harvard University Press, 2020
*''The Logical Alien: Conant and his Critics'', Harvard University Press, 2020.


==See also==
==See also==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conant, James F.}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conant, James F.}}
[[Category:Wittgensteinian philosophers]]
[[Category:Wittgensteinian philosophers]]
[[Category:Philosophers of language]]
[[Category:American philosophers of language]]
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]

Latest revision as of 15:03, 11 December 2024

James F. Conant
Born (1958-06-10) June 10, 1958 (age 66)
Kyoto, Japan
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard University (BA, PhD)
SchoolAnalytic, Postanalytic, The New Wittgenstein, Pragmatism
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Main interests
Wittgenstein, German idealism

James Ferguson Conant (born June 10, 1958) is an American philosopher at the University of Chicago who has written extensively on topics in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaphilosophy. He is perhaps best known for his writings on Wittgenstein, and his association with the New Wittgenstein school of Wittgenstein interpretation initiated by Cora Diamond.[1]

Life and career

[edit]

Conant was born in Kyoto, Japan, to American parents. He is the grandson of former Harvard University president James Bryant Conant. At 14, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and History of Science from Harvard College in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University in 1990. He joined the philosophy faculty at the University of Pittsburgh from 1990-1999, and then became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. In December, 2012, he became co-director of the Center for Analytic German Idealism[2] at Leipzig University, and in July, 2017 he was appointed Humboldt Professor of Philosophy[3] at Leipzig University. He remains as an adjunct professor at Leipzig.[4]

Philosophical work

[edit]

Since the mid 1990s Conant, together with Cora Diamond has advanced a “resolute reading” of Wittgenstein's early work which seeks to expose neglected underlying continuities between the philosopher's early and later approaches to philosophy, especially between his early Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and his later Philosophical Investigations. Conant has contributed to other areas in the history of analytic philosophy, writing particularly about the work of Gottlob Frege, of Rudolf Carnap, as well as about the relation between the views of both of these figures and those of Wittgenstein. A related theme running throughout Conant's work is the relation between the ideas of Immanuel Kant, and the Kantian tradition more broadly, and the analytic tradition.[5]

A recurring topic throughout Conant’s work is also that of philosophical skepticism. In this connection, he has drawn a distinction between two varieties of skepticism, which he calls “Cartesian skepticism” and “Kantian skepticism” respectively.[6]

In 2020, Harvard University Press published the 1100-page volume The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics, edited by Sofia Miguens.[7] The volume gathers Conant’s 1991 article The Search for Logically Alien Thought with reflections on it by eight philosophers: Jocelyn Benoist, Matthew Boyle, Martin Gustafsson, Arata Hamawaki, Adrian Moore, Barry Stroud, Peter Sullivan, and Charles Travis — followed by Conant’s responses to them.

Awards

[edit]

In 2016, Conant was one of three academics from abroad selected to receive Germany’s top international research award, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Research Prize.[8]

In 2012 James Conant received the Humboldt Foundation Anneliese Maier Research Award, a five-year award to promote the internationalisation of the humanities and social sciences in Germany.
In summer 2011, the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto in Portugal hosted a conference titled The Logical Alien at 20, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the publication of James Conant's paper "The Search for Logically Alien Thought".

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Hilary Putnam: Realism with a Human Face (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990.
  • "The Search for Logically Alien Thought: Descartes, Kant, Frege and the Tractatus" in The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam, Philosophical Topics, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1991), pp. 115–180.
  • Hilary Putnam: Words and Life (editor), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994.
  • Thomas Kuhn: The Road Since Structure (co-editor with John Haugeland), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2000.
  • Pragmatism and Realism (co-editor), Routledge, London, 2002.
  • "The Method of the Tractatus", in From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy, edited by Erich H. Reck, Oxford University Press, 2002.
  • Rileggere Wittgenstein (co-author with Cora Diamond), with a Foreword by Piergiorgio Donatelli and an Afterword by Silver Bronzo, Carocci, Rome, 2010.
  • Orwell ou le Pouvoir de la Verite (Agone, 2011).
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: Perfektionismus & Perspektivismus tr. by Joachim Schulte, Konstanz University Press, 2014.
  • Varieties of Skepticism: Essays after Kant, Wittgenstein, and Cavell (co-edited with Andrea Kern), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2014.
  • The Norton Anthology of Western Philosophy: After Kant, WW Norton & Co, 2017.
  • The Logical Alien: Conant and his Critics, Harvard University Press, 2020.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ The New Wittgenstein. Alice Crary and Rupert Read (eds.). Routledge, 2000
  2. ^ "Directors | FAGI Leipzig". www.fagi.uni-leipzig.de. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  3. ^ "Prof. Dr. James Ferguson Conant | Philosophie". www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  4. ^ "Prof. James Ferguson Conant".
  5. ^ See James Conant (ed.) Analytic Kantianism, Philosophical Topics, Vol. 34, Nos. 1 & 2
  6. ^ "Varieties of Skepticism," in Wittgenstein and Skepticism, ed. by Denis McManus, (Routledge Press, 2004)
  7. ^ The Logical Alien : Conant and his Critics. Miguens, Sofia. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press. 11 February 2020. ISBN 9780674335905. OCLC 1089955691.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ^ "Press release of 27.10.2016". Retrieved 30 January 2018.
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