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1. The Felt Meanings of the World: A Metaphysics of Feeling
(West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1986.)
( A new printing of this book will be available in several months.)
Selections from reviews and other published comments on Quentin Smith's The Felt Meanings of the World:
Review in Nous, April 1989,
by Panayot Butchvarov,
University of Iowa:
"This is a difficult and unusual book, but I believe patient and
open-minded readers will find it rewarding. The author is thoroughly familiar
with the history of philosophy as well as with contemporary philosophy, both
phenomenological and analytic. His book presents a picture of our cognitive
relationship to the world that is radically different from virtually all other
such pictures..."
"What are we to think of all this? At the very least, Quentin Smith provides
a marvelous phenomenological account of a great number of undoubtedly important
phenomena that philosophers have generally ignored... And the account is firmly
grounded in a recognition of the intentionality of feelings, of the fact that a
feeling is by its very nature directed upon an object. I also believe Smith is
right in holding that much in our conception of the world is disclosed only in
feeling... Quentin Smith's book is an example of what a philosophical book ought
to be: genuinely original, thoroughly informed, as clearly written as its
subject-matter allows, well organized, and concerned with a topic that really
matters."
Professor G. Globus, University of California at Irvine:
"The Felt Meanings of the Worldis a highly original philosophy combined with a deep criticism of the philosophical mainstream that is enamored of reason and rationality, and depreciates feeling. Dr. Smith's 'metaphysics of feeling' humanized philosophy while maintaining disciplined thought."
Professor H. Teloh, Vanderbilt University:
"This work is of the highest originality. The author has an immense grasp of historical and modern philosophers, and rare ability to construct good arguments for a novel position. These two abilities are seldom conjoined."
Professor W. Vallicella, University of Dayton:
"Despite the book's sweep, the author evinces a wide-ranging knowledge of recent and classical literature. He argues in detail and in depth."
"Feature Book Review", International Philosophical Quarterly, June 1991, by Bruce Wilshire, Rutgers University:
"To describe Quentin Smith's
The Felt
Meanings of the World one might use the metaphor the same
figure used that a critic used for Bruckner's symphonies: it is as it one had
wandered for days in the Arabian desert, rounded a dune, and suddenly confronted
the Empire State Building. Smith has written a book that we are no longer
supposed to be able to write. It is a work meant to satisfy our hunger as
metaphysical animals, our need to grasp the universe as a whole, hence also our
place in it, and all the profound feelings and orientations that go with that. .
. .
" . . . he develops his own version of phenomenology . . . Smith offers a
phenomenological analysis of quite a few global affects. I cannot begin to
sketch the richness, complexity, and density of this remarkable book. . . . A
colleague has called
The Felt
Meanings of the World the most important book in
phenomenonology yet written by an American. I tend to agree."
Review of
The Felt
Meanings of the World, The Journal of
Speculative Philosophy, 1990, pp. 336-339., by
Gary Calore, Pennsylvania State
University:
In
The Felt
Meanings of the World Quentin Smith has given us a work of
rich insight, bold innovation and uncompromising vision that sets out to
accomplish nothing less than the overthrow of traditional Western "rational
metaphysics" and its replacement by a "metaphysics of feeling"... The groundwork
of the investigation is established with admirable clarity and forthrightness at
he very outset of the book... To this end, Smith devotes the rest of the book,
displaying an admirable breadth of historical learning as well as an
incisive understanding of major contemporary philosophical perspectives. For
these traits alone, the work is well worth reading; but, in addition, and to
this reader more importantly, the author exhibits marks of dialetical acumen and
powers of constructive imagination that make his a most serious effort...
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the entire work is the positive
metaphysical doctine of feeling that emerges from the author's critique of
traditional theories of feeling, from Aristotle to contemporary phenomenology
and linguistic analysis... Smith's description of the generic traits of feeling
can be said to exhibit a striking originality. Moreover, the resulting framework
is powerful and persuasive in its breadth of encompassment... Smith is able to
develop a language of feeling of remarkable scope...
The Felt
Meanings of the World is a work of considerable verve and
ambitious scope. The doctine of feelings by itself is superb for its
comprehensive and subtle delineation of the realm of affect and mood."
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Paperback edition published 2002.
Selections from reviews and other published comments on Quentin Smith's Language and Time:
Review of Language and Time
in The Philosophical Review,
1995, by Robin Le Poidevin, University of Leeds:
Until recently the debate over whether time
itself is tensed seemed relatively clear cut.., By a simple move, Language and
Time has significantly altered this debate. It introduces into the ring a third
contestant which, although Quentin Smith does not describe it as such, we might
call the "new tensed theory of time". In effect, this consists of a combination
of the tensed and tenseless accounts....
Many of the moves made against traditional tensed theory are effectively
undermined, and a whole series of difficulties is put in the way of tenseless
theory, into whose coffin Smith is determined to hammer every conceivable nail.
There is enough material here to keep tenseless theoriests busy for a long time
to come. Moreover, Smith has an acute sense of strategy: he is constantly
drawing attention to his methods of establishing his position and showing that
he is avoiding question-begging move manoeuvres. The premises of each argument
are laid out with exemplary explicitness, and one is given the impression that
every objection has been anticipated....
Quentin Smith has produced a masterpiece. Just as Hugh Mellor's Real Time
was the classic statement of the new tenseless theory of time, in its
token-reflexive guise, Language and Time will be regarded as the classic
statement of the new tensed theory of time.
Review of Language and Time, International Studies
in Philosophy, 1996, pp. 143-144, by Lawrence Sklar, University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor.
The author defends a theory of time he calls "presentism". First the claim is
made that tensed language is essential for characterizing the temporal features
of the world. It is argued that tensed language cannot be translated without
loss of meaning into tenseless discourse. Furthermore, the "new theory of
reference" approach to tensed discourse, one that eschews translation claim but
entails that temporal indexicals such as "now" directly refer to times and do
not ascribe properties such as presentness to times, is rejected... The author's
extended critical attack on attempts to translate the tensed into the tenseless
seems well taken.
Jim Holt, Lingua Franca: The Review of Academic
Life, February 1996, pp. 29-39.
Jim Holt is a book columnist
for The Wall Street Journal and received his PhD in philosophy from Columbia
University.
He [Smith] began his career as a phenomenologist, but later apostatized and
became an analytic philosopher. Judging from his list of publications, he is
extraordinarily prolific and versatile--his recent book Language and Time was
pronounced a "masterpiece" by one reviewer .
. . Quentin Smith has displayed considerable brilliance . . . (33, 36).
3. Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology
Co-authored with William Lane Craig. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1993.
Selections from reviews and other published comments on Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology:
Review of
Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology
from International Journal of Philosophy
of Religion:
"One of the most important, interesting, and
illuminating . . . treatises in the philosophy of religion that has appeared in
print for many years."
Review of
Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology
from International Journal of Philosophy
of Religion:
"Stimulating . . . The discussions take full
account of recent scientific developments in cosmology and quantum gravity, and
are articulated with great philosophical sophistication."
Co-authored and co-edited with L. Nathan Oaklander, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1994.
5. Time, Change, and Freedom: An Introduction To Metaphysics
Co-authored with L. Nathan Oaklander. London: Routledge. 1995
6. Ethical and Religious Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language
New Haven: Yale University Press. 1997.
Selections from reviews and other published comments on Quentin Smith's Ethical and Religious Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language:
John Post's (Vanderbilt
University) comment:
"Smith's book is original not only in intent but frequently in the detailed
argument involved in evaluating the merits of the philosophies of language and
their implications for ethics and philosophy of religion".
Review in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. LXII, No. 3, May 2001, pp. 732-735, by Panayot Butchvarov's (University of Iowa):
"Smith proceeds to offer his own version of essential ethics.
He calls it global naturalist perfectionism. He argues plausibly that the
various reference-fixing descriptions associated with the words 'good' and
'right' (what speakers have 'in their heads' when using them) are satisfied by,
have as their reference, the property of being a development of things'
Natures. Hence the description of the view as perfectionist. The essence of
goodness, like that of water, is a matter of empirical fact, it is knowable a
posteriori, and has nothing to do with what we happen to have in our heads. . .
"Smith's perfectionism resemble the views of Plato and Aristotle, generally
ignored by the analytic philosophers for whom anti-essentialism was de rigeur.
But this should count in his favor. Really novel proposals about the good call
for suspicion; they are likely to be just zany. On the other hand, Smith's
proposal derives much of its power and plausibility from its roots in the work
of Marcus, Kripke, and Putnam, and thus hardly just an echo of the classical
views.
"Smith calls his perfectionism global because it ascribes
intrinsic value, thought widely varying in degrees, to all things, including
inanimate nature. The maximally good state is not just the development of human
nature. It is the development of the universe's nature, which includes the
nature of all things. There is a natural ethical purpose to the universe, to
which humans can contribute, even if in a very minor way. Thus global
perfectionism leads to a religious outlook that Smith aptly calls naturalistic
pantheism (220-221, and Conclusion). It provides human life with both ethical
and religious objective meaning, which other views in analytic ethics have
failed to do.
"A brief review cannot do justice to the riches in this book. It should be
read for its originality, as well as the picture it presents of analytic
philosophy"
Review of Ethical and Religious
Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language, Theological Studies, pp.
379-380, 1999, by
Robert Dell' Oro, Georgetown University:
Smith's beautiful and well-documented book does justice to the extension and
depth of analytic philosophy by showing that theories of the ethical or
religious meaning of human life follow directly from the methods of
linguistic analysis used by many analytic philosophers. Smith succeeds in
documenting that analytic philosophers have always been dealing with the
ultimate questions, and that the concern for language is not an end in itself
but a method by which these questions are approached.... Smith provides a
careful, albeit somewhat selective, description of the history of analytic
philosophy in relation to the question of the
meaning of human life, linking each of its four movements to a particular
version of the method of linguistic analysis employed.
Smith shows why the philosophies of religion of the positivists and ordinary
language analysts are mistaken and gives support to the view that statements
about objective religious meaning have both sense and truth-values. By dwelling
at length on the genesis of the different positions within contemporary
philosophy, Smith is able to present a more complete account of linguistic
essentialism and to show in detail how certain philosophies of religion and
ethics belong to this movement.
Smith argues for the metaethical thesis that moral realism is true.... Smith
puts linguistic essentialism to a relatively extensive use in constructing a
global, naturalist perfectionism which he sees as a viable option to the current
method of "reflective equilibuim" developed by John Rawls and to other normative
ethics currently being discussed.
The final goal of Smith's endeavor is 'to write a book on "the meaning of
human life" that shows how this extremely vague and equivocal phrase can be
defined in precise terms, so that it reduces to exactly specified topics in
metaethics, nomative ethics, and the philosophy of religion" (243). . .
Philosophers and theologians moving out of different philosophical traditions .
. . . . will benefit from such reading.
Review of Ethical and Religious
Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language, Philosophy In Review,
Volume 19, No. 3, June 199, pp. 224-226, by
Erich von Dietz.
This is a tightly argued and well-written book which offers
detailed discussion, deals lucidly with its material and engages the reader. It
presents a well-woven, finely-tuned, although at times complex, argument and
deserves to be carefully read. A central topic of the book is whether the (or
any) linguistic method can provide an answer to the question: Does human life
have an objective meaning (86)? The book seeks to provide a critical history of
the analytic philosophy of language from its inception in the late nineteenth
century to the present day.... The discussion of the four philosophy of language
movements [logical realism, logical positivism, ordinary language analysis,
linguistic essentialism] includes as much critical evaluation as exposition...
In the first part of the book, Smith's critique of logical realism, logical
positivism and ordinary language analysis is thorough. He understands these
movements well, situates them in their historical context and delineates the
main proponents of each movement. He knows the literature and understands how
the work of various thinkers is related to each other and in what ways their
work has been influential on the work of others. He also sees keenly some of the
finer distinctions within and between the movements. I found his handling of
Logical realism and logical positivism and the application of his argument into
ethics and philosophy of religion particularly helpful. His ability to make a
succinct case pertinent to his argument, without taking on the whole of the
broader debate, keeps the book focused and readable--see for instance his
outline of ten problems with the positivist theory of ethics (37-40).
Smith argues that the respective theses about objective meaning adopt4d by
these three movements [logical realism, positivism, and ordinary language
analysis] are not adequately justified by the arguments offered by the members
of these movements. His response in the second part of the book is to work
towards a positive theory of objective meaning, a version of naturalist moral
realism (in the perfectionist tradition of ethics). . . He seeks to construct a
viable theory of the ethical meaning of human life. "The conclusion . . . will
be that there is reason to think that an objective ethical meaning of human life
exists and that this meaning is stated by the theory of global, naturalist
perfectionism. This conclusion about ethical meaning will enable me to derive .
. a theory about an objective religious meaning of human life that differs from
monotheism, specifically, a naturalist pantheism" (159).
7. Consciousness: New Philosophical
Essays
Authored and co-edited with Alexander Jokic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003
8. Time, Tense, and Reference
Authored and co-edited with Alexander Jokic. Cambridge, MA;, MIT Press, Bradford Books. 2002.