In this collection of original papers, leading international authorities turn their attention to one of the most important questions in theoretical philosophy: what is truth? To arrive at an answer, two further questions need to be addressed in this context: 1) Does truth possess any essence, any inner nature? and 2) If so, what does this nature consist of? The present discussion focuses on the antagonism between substantial or robust theories of truth, with correspondence theory taking the lead, and deflationist or minimalist views, which have been commanding an increasing amount of attention in recent years. Whereas substantial theories proceed from the premise that truth has an essence, and that therefore the objective is to discover this essence, the challenge presented by deflationism is to dispense with this very premise.

Original papers by leading international authors address the most important problem in the philosophy of language, the question of how to assess the prospects of developing a tenable theory of meaning, given the influential sceptical attacks mounted against the concept of meaning by Willard Van Quine and Saul Kripke and their adherents in particular. Thus the texts attempt to answer the fundamental questions a " of whether there are meanings, and, if there are, of what they are and of the form a serious philosophical theory of meaning should take.

This volume comprises original articles by leading authors - from philosophy as well as sociology - in the debate around relativism in the sociology of (scientific) knowledge. Its aim has been to bring together several threads from the relevant disciplines and to cover the discussion from historical and systematic points of view. Among the contributors are Maria Baghramian, Barry Barnes, Martin Endress, Hubert Knoblauch, Richard Schantz and Harvey Siegel.

The debate between internalism and externalism has become a focal point of attention both in epistemology and in the philosophy of mind and language. Externalism challenges basic traditional internalist conceptions of the nature of knowledge, justification, thought and language. What is at stake, is the very form that theories in epistemology and the philosophy of mind ought to take. This volume is a collection of original contributions of leading internationalauthors reflecting onthe present state of the art concerning the exciting controversies between internalism and externalism.

Dieser Band ist eine Sammlung von Vortragen, die auf einer Tagung mit dem Titel "Aktuelle Probleme der Philosophie der Wahrnehmung" gehalten wurden, die im Sommer 2007 an der Universitat Siegen stattfand. Der Band verfolgt das Ziel, den Reichtum und die Lebendigkeit von wichtigen gegenwartigen Debatten in der Philosophie der Wahrnehmung zu dokumentieren. Die Philosophie der Wahrnehmung spielt in verschiedenen philosophischen Kerndisziplinen-in der Metaphysik, in der Erkenntnistheorie, in der Philosophie des Geistes-eine ganz wesentliche Rolle. Die in diesem Band versammelten Aufsatze beschaftigen sich mit zentralen Aspekten grundlegender philosophischer Fragestellungen dieser Kerndisziplinen."