The 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.
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