Timothy Williamson

Timothy Williamson ( born August 6, 1955 in Uppsala ) is an English philosopher. His theses on metaphilosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind and metaphysics are much discussed in recent philosophical disputes.

Central theses

In that 1994 textbook on vagueness Williamson represents a Epistemizismus. Vagueness describes the situation that the attempt to analysis of a term no clear boundary can be drawn. That this is the case, Williamson, however, does not mean that there is no clear boundary. Instead, we were to be found even in Phänomänen about color perception only in larger differences between two colors in a position that there is a difference ( although physically can always measure a difference).

In his book on epistemology Williamson tries to show that the concept of knowledge is impossible analyzed. The reason for the failure of all attempts of this analysis already lies in the fact that an analysis of "knowledge" must be a conjunction of concepts ever, such as " justified true opinion ". However, since knowledge is a mental ( allusive to a subject ) concept, analysis concepts, however, are non- mentally, any analysis using these tools must be different due to its non- individual character of the actual concept of knowledge. It is to assume a false expectation that the concept of knowledge let be described by a sharp non-trivial analysis. Rather, it is to " know " already the most general description of a position on a statement that could have someone if he has any position on this statement.

In his book The Philosophy of Philosophy metaphilosophical Williamson outlines a theory of science of philosophy. Although this different than other sciences, no empirical data relates, but only in the " armchair " taking place, they would be able to produce relevant answers to problems. This does not derive from the ingenious creativity of the philosophers, but is possible using the analysis of everyday skills and equipment. As an example, he cites the intuitions and reviews that we can develop reliable counterfactual conditionals.

Publications (selection)

• Identity and Discrimination. Oxford 1990.
• Vagueness. London 1994.
• Knowledge and its Limits. Oxford 2000.
• The Philosophy of Philosophy. Oxford 2007.
• Modal Logic as Metaphysics. Oxford 2013