Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Quick and Easy Sign Up!

It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.

Sign Up Browse

Popular Genres

Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

  • Download on iOS
  • Download on Android
  • Download on iOS

Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed

Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed

Felipe Fernández-Armesto
0/5 ( ratings)
Read Download
The pursuit of truth, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto, is "the quest for language that can match reality." He believes that the nature of that quest has never quite been fully understood; Truth aims to fill the void. He identifies four key methods of determining the truth--what we feel, what we are told, what we figure out, and what we observe--which are given poetic names such as "the hairy ball--teeth optional" and "the cage of wild birds." These four methods always exist together in every culture, although each one may be differently valued in different places at different times.

But Western philosophy after Descartes, in Fernández-Armesto's assessment, has been largely hostile to these ways of knowledge, and has steadily come to question the very existence of truth. His summation of post-Cartesian philosophy is a largely negative one, which veers dangerously close to ad hominem assaults. Nietzsche, for example, who "was praised too much in his youth for his superior powers of mind and never achieved prowess or position to match," is dismissed as "a sexually inexperienced invalid" whose philosophy was "warped and mangled out of his own lonely, sickly self-hatred." Pragmatism and existentialism, two of the 20th century's most important philosophical movements, are found inadequate; the former is "the philosophy of lovers of technology," while the latter "represents the retreat of Luddites and pessimists into the security of self-contemplation." But even though "philosophical subjectivisms, scientific uncertainties, and dumbing, numbing linguistics" have served to undermine the notion of truth, Fernández-Armesto believes, they cannot destroy it thoroughly. It seems that even in the face of relativism, truth will win out.
Language
English
Pages
257
Format
Paperback
Release
January 01, 1997
ISBN 13
9780312274948

Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed

Felipe Fernández-Armesto
0/5 ( ratings)
Read Download
The pursuit of truth, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto, is "the quest for language that can match reality." He believes that the nature of that quest has never quite been fully understood; Truth aims to fill the void. He identifies four key methods of determining the truth--what we feel, what we are told, what we figure out, and what we observe--which are given poetic names such as "the hairy ball--teeth optional" and "the cage of wild birds." These four methods always exist together in every culture, although each one may be differently valued in different places at different times.

But Western philosophy after Descartes, in Fernández-Armesto's assessment, has been largely hostile to these ways of knowledge, and has steadily come to question the very existence of truth. His summation of post-Cartesian philosophy is a largely negative one, which veers dangerously close to ad hominem assaults. Nietzsche, for example, who "was praised too much in his youth for his superior powers of mind and never achieved prowess or position to match," is dismissed as "a sexually inexperienced invalid" whose philosophy was "warped and mangled out of his own lonely, sickly self-hatred." Pragmatism and existentialism, two of the 20th century's most important philosophical movements, are found inadequate; the former is "the philosophy of lovers of technology," while the latter "represents the retreat of Luddites and pessimists into the security of self-contemplation." But even though "philosophical subjectivisms, scientific uncertainties, and dumbing, numbing linguistics" have served to undermine the notion of truth, Fernández-Armesto believes, they cannot destroy it thoroughly. It seems that even in the face of relativism, truth will win out.
Language
English
Pages
257
Format
Paperback
Release
January 01, 1997
ISBN 13
9780312274948

More books from Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food

3.7/5 ( ratings)

1492: The Year the World Began

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Ideas That Changed the World

3.9/5 ( ratings)

The Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction

3.9/5 ( ratings)

So You Think You're Human: A Brief History of Humankind

3.6/5 ( ratings)

A Foot in the River

3/5 ( ratings)

The Americas

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The Times Atlas of European History

4.1/5 ( ratings)

جهان اسطوره‌ها ۲

4/5 ( ratings)

Hoe de wereld werd ontdekt: geschiedenis van de ontdekkingstochten

4/5 ( ratings)

The Medieval Frontiers of Latin Christendom: Expansion, Contraction, Continuity: 1 (The Expansion of Latin Europe, 1000-1500)

4/5 ( ratings)

The Oxford Illustrated History of the World

4/5 ( ratings)

Religion and Faith (Predictions)

4/5 ( ratings)

Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It

4/5 ( ratings)

Barcelona: A Thousand Years Of The City's Past

4/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?

loader