Soames replies to the latest critique of his history of analytic philosophy in the 20th-century, by Peter Hacker (about whose sometimes curious readings of figures in the tradition we have had occasion to comment previously). It is quite amusing. A memorable line (p. 7): "Concerning Kripke, Hacker's incomprehension is astonishing." And the conclusion:
Perhaps, as with his criticism of my principles of selection [of philosophers to discuss], and his dismissal of my discussion of the significance of Kripke, he refused to engage with the work, or try to understand its basic premises. Noting that much of it threatened his own view of material to which he had come to feel a proprietary right, he may simply have decided to reject it, and do what he could to minimize its impact. If so, then his critique scarcely qualifies as scholarship.
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