Donald Davidson (philosopher)

Donald Herbert Davidson (March 6, 1917 – August 30, 2003) was an American philosopher and the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley (1981–2003), having previously held teaching appointments at Stanford University, Rockefeller University, Princeton University, and the University of Chicago. Davidson was known for his charismatic personality and difficult writing style, as well as the systematic nature of his philosophy. His work exerted considerable influence in many areas of philosophy from the 1960s onward, particularly in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and action theory. Most of Davidson's influence was on analytic philosophy, his tradition, but his work has attracted attention in continental philosophy (and particularly in literary theory and related areas).