David Macarthur is an Australian philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

who works primarily on

skepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

, metaphysical quietism,

pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

liberal naturalism Liberal naturalism is a heterodox form of philosophical naturalism that lies in the conceptual space between scientific (or reductive) naturalism and supernaturalism. It allows that one can respect the explanations and results of the successful s ...

and

philosophy of art Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

(especially film, photography and architecture). He has taken up these and other themes in articles on the philosophy of

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 ...

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic phi ...

and

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 considere ...

. After completing a medical degree (M.B.B.S., 1988) and B.A. (1991, awarded with 1st-class Hons and University Medal) at the University of Sydney, he was awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1999 under the supervision of Stanley Cavell, Hilary Putnam and

Warren Goldfarb Warren David Goldfarb (born 1949) is Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic at Harvard University. He specializes in the history of analytic philosophy and in logic, most notably the classical decision probl ...

, with a thesi
"Skeptical Reason & Inner Experience: A Re-Examination of the Problem of the External World."
He then taught at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

(1999–2000), before taking up a post-doctoral research fellowship at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

(2000–2003). Since 2003 he has been a member of the Philosophy Department at the

. Together with

Mario De Caro Mario De Caro (born 1963) is an Italian philosopher, professor of moral philosophy at the University of Rome III in Italy. Since 2000, he has also been teaching at Tufts University, where he is regularly a visiting professor. He is interested in ...

, Macarthur has developed a new form of naturalism called

, as an alternative to scientific naturalism – which in one form or another is the orthodoxy within contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. Inspired primarily by

and

John McDowell John Henry McDowell, FBA (born 7 March 1942) is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford, and now university professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written on metaphysics, epistemology, ...

, liberal naturalism attempts to overcome the wholesale Sellarsian elimination or replacement of the manifest image by the scientific image of the world. In order to achieve this aim, Macarthur has defended the viability and importance of non-scientific non-supernatural forms of understanding, especially concerning persons, language, art, artefacts and their various relations to one another.

Books

Edited volumes

* Macarthur, David and De Caro, Mario (Eds.) (2022). ''The Routledge Handbook of

Liberal Naturalism Liberal naturalism is a heterodox form of philosophical naturalism that lies in the conceptual space between scientific (or reductive) naturalism and supernaturalism. It allows that one can respect the explanations and results of the successful s ...

''. London: Routledge. * Macarthur, David and Hetherington, Stephen (Eds.) (2022). ''Living Skepticism''. Leiden: Brill. * Macarthur, David and De Caro, Mario (Eds.) (2022). ''Philosophy as Dialogue: Hilary Putnam''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Macarthur, David (Ed.) (2017). ''Hilary Putnam & Ruth Anna Putnam, Pragmatism as a Way of Life: The Lasting Legacy of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

and

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Macarthur, David and De Caro, Mario (Eds.) (2012). ''Hilary Putnam: Philosophy in an Age of Science: Physics, Mathematics and Skepticism''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Macarthur, David and De Caro, Mario (Eds.) (2010). ''Naturalism and Normativity''. New York: Columbia University Press. * Macarthur, David and De Caro, Mario (Eds.) (2004). ''Naturalism in Question''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Articles (A Short Selection)

*Macarthur, David (2020) “Rorty and (the End of) Metaphysics (?).” In ''The Blackwell Companion to Richard Rorty'', Alan Malachawski (ed.). London: Wiley-Blackwell. *Macarthur, David (2019) “Difficulties of Reality, Skepticism and Moral Community: Remarks after Diamond on Cavell.” In Andrew Gleeson & Craig Taylor (eds.) ''Philosophy in a Realistic Spirit''. London: Routledge, 176-193. *Macarthur, David (2017) “Wittgenstein on Art.” In Anat Matar (ed.) ''Understanding Wittgenstein, Understanding Modernism''. London: Bloomsbury, 258–266. *Macarthur, David (2017) “A Vision of Blindness: ''Bladerunner'' and Moral Redemption.” Film-Philosophy: Special Issue on Cinematic Ethics. Ed. Robert Sinnerbrink, vol. 21 no. 3: 371–391. *Macarthur, David (2016) “Metaphysical Quietism and Everyday Life.” In G. D’Oro & S. Overgaard (eds.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Philosophical Methodology''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 270–296. *Macarthur, David (2014) “Subject Naturalism, Scientism and the Problem of Linguistic Meaning: Critical Remarks on Price’s ‘Naturalism without Representationalism’.” ''Analisis'' (Spain), vol. 1 no. 1: 69–85. *Macarthur, David (2014) “Cavell on Skepticism & the Importance of Not-Knowing”. ''Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies'', No. 2, (2014): 2–23, https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ojs/index.php/conversations/issue/view/222 *Macarthur, David (2010) “Taking the Human Sciences Seriously.” In De Caro, M. & Macarthur, D. (eds.), ''Naturalism and Normativity''. New York: Columbia University Press, 123–141. *Macarthur, David (2008) “Pragmatism, Metaphysical Quietism and the Problem of Normativity,” ''Philosophical Topics'', vol. 36, no. 1: 193–207. *Macarthur, David & Price, Huw (2007) “Pragmatism, Quasi-realism and the Global Challenge.” In C. Misak (ed.), ''New Pragmatists''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Macarthur, David (2003) “McDowell, Skepticism and the ‘Veil of Perception,” ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', vol. 81: 175-190.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macarthur, David Academic staff of the University of Sydney University of Sydney alumni Australian expatriates in the United States 21st-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian philosophers Australian philosophers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard University alumni