John McDowell

The four dimensions in the 16-axis model where this thinker scores highest. People in this archetype tend to lean the same way.

• TRTrust in Reason

  7 / 10
• TETrust in Experience

  7 / 10
• SRSkeptical Reflex

  7 / 10
• TDTheoretical Drive

  7 / 10

The six thinkers whose 16-dimensional positions sit closest to this one. Useful as next-reading suggestions.

• Linda ZagzebskiCARTOGRAPHER

  Virtues of the Mind — epistemic and moral virtue as one fabric.

• P.F. StrawsonCARTOGRAPHER

  Individuals — descriptive metaphysics of persons and bodies.

• Talbot BrewerTOUCHSTONE

  The Retrieval of Ethics — appetites trained by understanding.

• Donald DavidsonCARTOGRAPHER

  Anomalous monism; radical interpretation as the test of meaning.

• Rae LangtonTOUCHSTONE

  Pornography as silencing — speech-act theory turned to ethics.

• Wilfrid SellarsCARTOGRAPHER

  Myth of the Given — manifest and scientific images side by side.

Short exercises in the same tradition as John McDowell's thought. Each takes 5–25 minutes.

• Argument mapping →

  Draw the structure of an argument as boxes and arrows. See its load-bearing walls.

• Reductio ad absurdum →

  Take a claim seriously, run it to its logical limit, see if you still believe it.

• Counterexample drill →

  Try to break a moral rule with a single concrete case.