David Macarthur

David Macarthur is an Australian philosopher and associate professor at the University of Sydney who works primarily on skepticism, metaphysical quietism, pragmatism, naturalism and philosophy of art (especially film, photography and architecture).

He received a B.A. (1st-class Hons and University medal) from the University of Sydney in 1988 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1999 under the supervision of Stanley Cavell, Hilary Putnam and Warren Goldfarb, with a thesis "Skeptical Reason & Inner Experience: A Re-Examination of the Problem of the External World." He first taught at Tufts University (1999–2000), before taking up a post-doc at Macquarie University (2000–2003). Since 2003 he has been at the University of Sydney.

Macarthur, together with Mario De Caro, has developed a new form of naturalism which they call liberal naturalism, as an alternative to scientific naturalism. Inspired by Hilary Putnam and John McDowell, 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, art and artefacts and their relations to one another.

Books

Edited volumes

• Macarthur, David (Ed.) (2017). Hilary Putnam & Ruth Anna Putnam, Pragmatism as a Way of Life: The Lasting Legacy of William James and John Dewey. 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.

Selected Articles

• 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) “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.