Donald Davidson is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. He is an analytic philosopher in the tradition of Ludwig Wittgenstein and W. V. Quine, and his formulations of action, truth, and communicative interaction have generated considerable debate in philosophical circles around the world. He has never attempted a systematic exposition of his philosophical program, and so there is no single place where a student, interpreter, or critic can seek its official formulation. His published essays, taken together, form a mosaic that must be viewed all at once to discern an overall pattern. In addition, many of them include subtleties, complexities, and cross-references that cannot be entirely appreciated except in conjunction with one another.

Davidson was born on 6 March 1917 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Clarence Herbert Davidson, an engineer, and Grace Cordelia Anthony Davidson. The family lived...