Cora Diamond (born 1937) is an American philosopher who works on

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

, Gottlob Frege, moral philosophy, animal ethics,

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

, and

philosophy and literature Philosophy and literature involves the literary treatment of philosophers and philosophical themes (the literature of philosophy), and the philosophical treatment of issues raised by literature (the philosophy of literature). The philosophy ...

. Diamond is the Kenan Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Education and career

Diamond received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from Swarthmore College in 1957 and her

Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's d ...

degree from St Hugh's College, Oxford (where her tutor was

Paul Grice Herbert Paul Grice (13 March 1913 – 28 August 1988), usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H. Paul Grice, or Paul Grice, was a British philosopher of language. He is best known for his theory of implicature and the cooperative pri ...

), in 1961.

Philosophical work

One of Diamond's most famous articles, "What Nonsense Might Be", criticizes the way that the logical positivists think about nonsense on Fregean grounds (see

category mistake A category mistake, or category error, or categorical mistake, or mistake of category, is a semantic or ontological error in which things belonging to a particular category are presented as if they belong to a different category, or, alternativ ...

). Another well-known article, "Eating Meat and Eating People", examines the rhetorical and philosophical nature of contemporary attitudes towards

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

. Diamond's writings on both "early" ('' Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' era) and "late" (''

Philosophical Investigations ''Philosophical Investigations'' (german: Philosophische Untersuchungen) is a work by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, published posthumously in 1953. ''Philosophical Investigations'' is divided into two parts, consisting of what Wittgens ...

'' era) Wittgenstein have made her a leading influence in the New Wittgensteinian approach advanced by

Alice Crary Alice Crary (; born 1967) is an American philosopher who currently holds the positions of University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research in New York City and Visiting Fellow at Regent's Park Colle ...

, James F. Conant, and others. Diamond has published a collection of essays titled ''The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind.'' She is the editor of ''Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics: Cambridge 1939'', a collection of lectures assembled from the notes of Wittgenstein's students

Norman Malcolm Norman Malcolm (; 11 June 1911 – 4 August 1990) was an American philosopher. Biography Malcolm was born in Selden, Kansas. He studied philosophy with O. K. Bouwsma at the University of Nebraska, then enrolled as a graduate student at Ha ...

Rush Rhees Rush Rhees (; 19 March 1905 – 22 May 1989) was an American philosopher. He is principally known as a student, friend, and literary executor of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. With G. E. M. Anscombe he was co-editor of Wittgenstein's pos ...

, Yorick Smythies, and R. G. Bosanquet. ''Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond'' (edited by

) features essays by Crary, John McDowell, Martha Nussbaum,

Stanley Cavell Stanley Louis Cavell (; September 1, 1926 – June 19, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. He worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, an ...

, and James F. Conant, among others.

References

External links

Diamond's home page at UVaAn interview with Diamond from 2000
(pdf)
Eating Meat and Eating People
(pdf) {{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Cora 1937 births 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American women writers Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford American ethicists American political philosophers American women philosophers Animal ethicists Living people Philosophers from New York (state) Philosophers of language Swarthmore College alumni University of Virginia faculty Wittgensteinian philosophers Writers from New York City

Education and career

Philosophical work

See also

References

External links