- Lived:
- 1917–2003 · Springfield, Massachusetts → Harvard → Stanford → Berkeley
- Tradition:
- American analytic philosophy; meaning, mind, and action unified by one theory of interpretation
- The Big Idea:
- To understand anything a person says or does, you must find the reasons in it — and that single requirement shapes what meaning is, what minds are, and how actions work.
- In their words:
- "Charity is not an option."
- If you remember one thing:
- He never wrote a book of philosophy, only essays — and the essays locked together into one of the most systematic philosophies of the twentieth century.