Modern Anti-realism and Manufactured Truth PDF Download

Author: G. Vision
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Gerald A. Vision
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003808387
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
First published in 1988, Modern Anti-Realism and Manufactured Truth examines the forms of anti-realism which have sprouted in analytic philosophy and addresses more directly the grander culture of anti-realism. No attempt is made in these pages to demonstrate the existence of a mind independent world. Part one of the book is devoted to a clarification and defense of Correspondence. In chapter 2, Correspondence is refined by distinguishing what is critical to it from other tenets with which philosophical debate has burdened it. Next in chapter 3, author looks at some of the most common complaints against Correspondence, as well as a novel objection propounded by Hillary Putnam. Chapter 4 deals with the two most prominent alternative truth theories- Coherence and Pragmatism. Chapter 5 details a version of Correspondence. Part two of the book considers not standard theories of truth, but theories in which truth is epistemologized. Chapter 6 begins with an overview of certain generalized positions, including relativism about truth but most of the part two is devoted to the examination of three rather individualized attempts to epistemologize truth. The author concludes that once Correspondence is better understood and the genuine insights of these views are clarified, global realism survives intact. This is a must read for students of philosophy, political philosophy.

Author: Gerald Vision
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415000970
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Author: William P. Alston
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501720562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Throughout the past century, a debate has raged over the thesis of realism and its alternatives. Realism—the seemingly commonsensical view that all or most of what we encounter in the world exists and is what it is independently of human thought—has been vigorously denied by such prominent intellectuals as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Thomas Kuhn, Hilary Putnam, and Nelson Goodman. The opponents of realism, among them historians and social scientists who support social constructionism, hold that all or most of reality depends on human conceptual schemes and beliefs. In this volume of original essays, a group of philosophers explores the ongoing controversy. The book opens with an introduction by William P. Alston, whose writing on the subject has been widely influential. Selected essays then compare and contrast aspects of the arguments put forward by the realists with those of the antirealists. Other chapters discuss the importance of the debate for philosophical topics such as epistemology and for domains ranging from religion, literature, and science to morality.

Author: Samir Okasha
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198745583
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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"In this new edition Samir Ikasha reviews the main themes of contemporary philosophy of science. Beginning with a brief account of the history of modern science, he asks whether there is a discernible pattern to the way scientific ideas change over time. He examines scientific inference, scientific explanation, and the debate between realist and anti-realist views of science."--

Author: Christopher Norris
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134595255
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.

Author: Patrick Greenough
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199288885
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Is truth objective or relative? What exists independently of our minds? This book is about these two questions. The essays in its pages variously defend and critique answers to each, grapple over the proper methodology for addressing them, and wonder whether either question is worth pursuing. In so doing, they carry on a long and esteemed tradition - for our two questions are among the oldest of philosophical issues, and have vexed almost every major philosopher, from Plato, to Kant to Wittgenstein. Fifteen eminent contributors bring fresh perspectives, renewed energy and original answers to debates which have been the focus of a tremendous amount of interest in the last three decades both within philosophy and the culture at large.

Author: Christopher Norris
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748684565
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Christopher Norris raises some basic questions about the way that analytic philosophy has been conducted over the past 25 years. In doing so, he offers an alternative to what he sees as an over-specialisation of a lot of recent academic work. Arguing that analytic philosophy has led to a narrowing of sights to the point where other approaches that might be more productive are blocked from view, he goes against the grain to claim that Continental philosophy holds the resources for a creative renewal of analytic thought.

Author: William P. Alston
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501720554
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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One of the most important Anglo-American philosophers of our time here joins the current philosophical debate about the nature of truth. William P. Alston formulates and defends a realist conception of truth, which he calls alethic realism (from "aletheia," Greek for truth). This idea holds that the truth value of a statement (belief or proposition) depends on whether what the statement is about is as the statement says it is. Michael Dummett and Hilary Putnam are two of the prominent and widely influential contemporary philosophers whose anti-realist ideas Alston attacks.

Author: Pascal Engel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317489551
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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In this critical introduction to contemporary philosophical issues in the theory of truth Pascal Engel provides clear and authoritative exposition of recent and current ideas while providing original perspectives that advances discussion of the key issues. This book begins with a presentation of the classical conceptions of truth - the correspondence theory, the coherence theory and verificationist and pragmatist accounts - before examining so-called minimalist and deflationist conceptions that deny truth can be anything more than a thin concept holding no metaphysical weight. The debates between those who favour substantive conceptions of the classical kind and those who advocate minimalist and deflationist conceptions are explored. Engel argues that, although the minimalist conception of truth is basically right, it does not follow that truth can be eliminated from our philosophical thinking as some upholders of radical deflationist views have claimed. Questions about truth and realism are examined and the author shows how the realism/anti-realism debate remains a genuine, meaningful issue for a theory of truth and has not been undermined by deflationist views. Even if a metaphysical substantive theory of truth has little chance to succeed, Engel concludes, truth can keep a central role within our thinking, as a norm or guiding value of our rational inquiries and practices, in the philosophy of knowledge and in ethics.