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Obituary

Donald Davidson (1917-2003)

by Anna Sherratt

Donald Herbert Davidson ranks as one of the greatest American philosophers. Born in Massachusetts in 1917, he grew up in the Philippines and on Staten Island, New York. In 1935, he won a scholarship to Harvard where he studied English and Comparative Literature. Here Davidson met Willard Van Orman Quine, and formed the interests in philosophy of mind, action and language that would shape the rest of his career. Although Davidson described himself as besotted with philosophy, by no means was it his only interest.

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