# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/donald-davidson
# Generated: 2026-09-01T05:03:03.288Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/donald-davidson"
name: "Donald Davidson"
slug: "donald-davidson"
description: "A philosopher whose writing was notoriously hard to crack but whose ideas rewired how analytic philosophy thought about mind, language, and action from the 1960s on."
tagline: "American philosopher (1917–2003)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Davidson_pyke.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1917-03-06"
deathDate: "2003-08-30"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           54.29
  momentum:             0
  historical:           23.981152
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "Academic"
    slug: "academic"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "United States"
    slug: "united-states"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q311772"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Donald%20Davidson"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B4_%D0%94%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D1%81%D1%8A%D0%BD"
    title: "Доналд Дейвидсън"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Herbert_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Herbert Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson_(philosopher)"
    title: "Donald Davidson (philosopher)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF_%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "دونالد دیویدسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson_(filosofi)"
    title: "Donald Davidson (filosofi)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%9C%D7%93_%D7%93%D7%99%D7%99%D7%95%D7%95%D7%99%D7%93%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9F"
    title: "דונלד דייווידסון"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%B4%D5%B8%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%AC%D5%A4_%D4%B4%D6%87%D5%AB%D5%A4%D5%BD%D5%B8%D5%B6_(%D6%83%D5%AB%D5%AC%D5%AB%D5%BD%D5%B8%D6%83%D5%A1)"
    title: "Դոնալդ Դևիդսոն (փիլիսոփա)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%87%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3"
    title: "ドナルド・デイヴィッドソン"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%8F%84%EB%84%90%EB%93%9C_%EB%8D%B0%EC%9D%B4%EB%B9%84%EB%93%9C%EC%8A%A8"
    title: "도널드 데이비드슨"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%A1%E0%B5%8A%E0%B4%A3%E0%B4%BE%E0%B5%BE%E0%B4%A1%E0%B5%8D_%E0%B4%A1%E0%B5%87%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A1%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B8%E0%B5%BA"
    title: "ഡൊണാൾഡ് ഡേവിഡ്സൺ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Donald Davidson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson_(philosopher)"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://is.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Davidson"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF_%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "دونالد ديفيدسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF_%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "دونالد ديفيدسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Donald Herbert Davidson was born March 6, 1917, and built a teaching career across Stanford, Rockefeller, Princeton, and Chicago before landing at Berkeley in 1981 as Slusser Professor of Philosophy, a post he held until his death on August 30, 2003. His work was systematic and his prose famously difficult, but the charisma in person was real, and the influence spread wide—philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, action theory. Though rooted in the analytic tradition, his thinking jumped the fence into continental circles, particularly literary theory. He left behind a body of work that demanded close reading and repaid it.