Truth in Context: An Essay on Pluralism and ObjectivityMIT Press, 1998 M12 1 - 196 pages A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 1999 Academic debates about pluralism and truth have become increasingly polarized in recent years. One side embraces extreme relativism, deeming any talk of objective truth as philosophically naïve. The opposition, frequently arguing that any sort of relativism leads to nihilism, insists on an objective notion of truth according to which there is only one true story of the world. Both sides agree that there is no middle path. In Truth in Context, Michael Lynch argues that there is a middle path, one where metaphysical pluralism is consistent with a robust realism about truth. Drawing on the work of Hilary Putnam, W.V.O. Quine, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, among others, Lynch develops an original version of metaphysical pluralism, which he calls relativistic Kantianism. He argues that one can take facts and propositions as relative without implying that our ordinary concept of truth is a relative, epistemic, or "soft" concept. The truths may be relative, but our concept of truth need not be. |
Contents
The Faces of Pluralism | 9 |
Understanding Conceptual Schemes | 31 |
Extending Our Worldview | 55 |
The Nature of Existence | 77 |
The Currents of Truth | 101 |
The True and the Real | 141 |
Notes | 159 |
169 | |
177 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
References to this book
Philosophical Issues, Realism and Relativism Ernest Sosa,Enrique Villanueva No preview available - 2003 |