John McDowell

John Henry McDowell (born 7 March 1942) is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford and now University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written extensively on metaphysics, epistemology, ancient philosophy, and meta-ethics, McDowell's most influential work has been in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. McDowell was one of three recipients of the 2010 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award. and is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the British Academy.

McDowell has, throughout his career, understood philosophy to be "therapeutic" and thereby to "leave everything as it is", which he understands to be a form of philosophical quietism (although he does not consider himself to be a "quietist"). The philosophical quietist believes that philosophy cannot make any explanatory comment about how, for example, thought and talk relate to the world but can, by offering re-descriptions of philosophically problematic cases, return the confused philosopher to a state of intellectual quietude. However, in defending this quietistic perspective McDowell has engaged with the work of leading contemporaries in such a way as to both therapeutically dissolve what he takes to be philosophical error, while developing original and distinctive theses about language, mind and value. In each case, he has tried to resist the influence of what he regards as a misguided, reductive form of philosophical naturalism that dominates the work of his contemporaries, particularly in North America.

John McDowell (Manitoba politician)

John McDowell (September 16, 1894 at Greenock in Inverclyde, Scotland – June 10, 1980) was a merchant and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Progressive Conservative from 1945 to 1958.

The son of John McDowell and Janet Shaw, McDowell came to Canada with his family in 1895, and was educated in Toronto, Ontario. He worked as a grain dealer, and was president of McDowell Grain Co. Ltd and Ridgewood Development Co. Ltd. He was also on the board of governors of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1945 provincial election, in the constituency of Iberville. At the time, Manitoba was governed by a coalition ministry of Liberal-Progressives and Progressive Conservatives. McDowell ran as an Independent Progressive Conservative supporting the coalition, and defeated Liberal-Progressive W.D. Lawrence by over 400 votes.

He resigned his seat in 1949 to run for the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative. He finished third in the riding of Selkirk in the federal election of 1949, behind William Bryce of the social-democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and Liberal Laurier Regnier.

John McDowell (bishop)

(Francis) John McDowell is the current Anglican Bishop of Clogher.

He was born in 1956, educated at Queen's University Belfast and ordained in 1997. After a curacy in County Antrim he held incumbencies in Ballyrashane and Belfast. He was appointed by the House of Bishops on 30 May 2011; and on consecrated 23 September that year.

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