Truth: A GuideThe author of the highly popular book Think, which Time magazine hailed as "the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy," Simon Blackburn is that rara avis--an eminent thinker who is able to explain philosophy to the general reader. Now Blackburn offers a tour de force exploration of what he calls "the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy"--the age-old war over truth. The front lines of this war are well defined. On one side are those who believe in plain, unvarnished facts, rock-solid truths that can be found through reason and objectivity--that science leads to truth, for instance. Their opponents mock this idea. They see the dark forces of language, culture, power, gender, class, ideology and desire--all subverting our perceptions of the world, and clouding our judgement with false notions of absolute truth. Beginning with an early skirmish in the war--when Socrates confronted the sophists in ancient Athens--Blackburn offers a penetrating look at the longstanding battle these two groups have waged, examining the philosophical battles fought by Plato, Protagoras, William James, David Hume, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and many others, with a particularly fascinating look at Nietzsche. Among the questions Blackburn considers are: is science mere opinion, can historians understand another historical period, and indeed can one culture ever truly understand another. Blackburn concludes that both sides have merit, and that neither has exclusive ownership of truth. What is important is that, whichever side we embrace, we should know where we stand and what is to be said for our opponents. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 76
Page xv
... nature or culture or language or experience, that shape the way we see things. Nietzsche said 'There are no facts, only interpretations'. That will do as a relativist slogan, and in many people's eyes Nietzsche is a high priest of ...
... nature or culture or language or experience, that shape the way we see things. Nietzsche said 'There are no facts, only interpretations'. That will do as a relativist slogan, and in many people's eyes Nietzsche is a high priest of ...
Page xvi
... nature of truth. The idea that our stories about the world and ourselves are just transient constructions, that our perspective is just one among many, or that illusion and fiction are pervasive, undermines the seriousness with which we ...
... nature of truth. The idea that our stories about the world and ourselves are just transient constructions, that our perspective is just one among many, or that illusion and fiction are pervasive, undermines the seriousness with which we ...
Page xix
... nature of truth. For to the sceptical mind, one implication of the absolute and demanding nature of truth may well be that we are always at risk when we claim it. A relativist by contrast can be more cavalier about his convictions ...
... nature of truth. For to the sceptical mind, one implication of the absolute and demanding nature of truth may well be that we are always at risk when we claim it. A relativist by contrast can be more cavalier about his convictions ...
Page xx
A Guide Simon Blackburn. nature in her very own language, but the relativist insists that nature does not speak, and ... natural sciences. Finally, we think of the prospects for interpretation of ourselves in the human sciences. In the ...
A Guide Simon Blackburn. nature in her very own language, but the relativist insists that nature does not speak, and ... natural sciences. Finally, we think of the prospects for interpretation of ourselves in the human sciences. In the ...
Page 4
... nature of belief, and my aim is not so much to judge the debate about anyone's right to conviction, as to follow it into those deeper waters. The philosophy of religion is here only an introductory taster, or a laboratory example, of a ...
... nature of belief, and my aim is not so much to judge the debate about anyone's right to conviction, as to follow it into those deeper waters. The philosophy of religion is here only an introductory taster, or a laboratory example, of a ...
Contents
1 | |
CHAPTER 2 Man the Measure | 23 |
CHAPTER 3 Ishmaels Problem and the Delights of Keeping Quiet | 45 |
the Arch Debunker | 73 |
CHAPTER 5 The Possibility of Philosophy | 107 |
from Locke to Rorty | 137 |
CHAPTER 7 Realism as Science Realism about Science | 173 |
CHAPTER 8 Historians and Others | 197 |
Notes | 223 |
Index | 235 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute absolutist accept appear belief Bernard Williams better bull’s-eye Cambridge chapter claim Clifford commitments conception consider Cratylus dark forces David Hume Davidson describe doctrine eliminativism empirically adequate ethics example explain false fiction Francis Bacon Friedrich Nietzsche give historian hold holism human Hume’s idea illusion inconsistent interpretation issue judgement Kant knowledge language logos look Ludwig Wittgenstein mathematics means Meta Story metaphor metaphysical mind moral nature Nietzsche Nietzsche’s norms notion objectivity ourselves Oxford University Press perhaps perspective philosophers Plato problem Protagoras question quietist R. G. Collingwood realism reality reason recoil argument relativism relativist religious Richard Rorty Rorty’s scepticism scientific sense simply Socrates someone stand success suppose talk tell theory things Thomas Nagel thought tion totally empirically true truth turn understanding variation of subjectivities vocabulary W. V. Quine Walter Kaufmann Wittgenstein words wrong