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Interview

Donald Davidson

Donald Davidson’s theories about mind and language have been incredibly influential in shaping modern analytic philosophy. Giancarlo Marchetti recently asked him about his life and his ideas.

I’d like to begin with a question about your intellectual background. What originally led you to study philosophy?

It’s hard to tell. I’ve always seemed to like argument and debate, but I think it was my interest in literature that led me to read philosophy for the first time when I was about fourteen years old. I read a lot of Nietzsche, of course, and a little Plato, whatever I just happened to find. As soon as I went to college, I started taking philosophy courses, though that was not my area of concentration, which was literature.

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