Relativism And The Foundations Of Philosophy

Author : J. David Velleman
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1783740329
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Foundations for Moral Relativism written by J. David Velleman and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new edition of Foundations for Moral Relativism a distinguished moral philosopher tames a bugbear of current debate about cultural difference. J. David Velleman shows that different communities can indeed be subject to incompatible moralities, because their local mores are rationally binding. At the same time, he explains why the mores of different communities, even when incompatible, are still variations on the same moral themes. The book thus maps out a universe of many moral worlds without, as Velleman puts it, "moral black holes”. The six self-standing chapters discuss such diverse topics as online avatars and virtual worlds, lying in Russian and truth-telling in Quechua, the pleasure of solitude and the fear of absurdity. Accessibly written, this book presupposes no prior training in philosophy.

Author : Steven D. Hales
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262263130
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy written by Steven D. Hales and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-08-21 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A defense of the view that philosophical propositions are true in some perspectives and false in others, arguing that the rationalist, intuition-driven method of acquiring basic beliefs favored by analytic philosophy is not epistemically superior to such alternate belief-acquiring methods as religious revelation and the ritual use of hallucinogens. The grand and sweeping claims of many relativists might seem to amount to the argument that everything is relative—except the thesis of relativism. In this book, Steven Hales defends relativism, but in a more circumscribed form that applies specifically to philosophical propositions. His claim is that philosophical propositions are relatively true—true in some perspectives and false in others. Hales defends this argument first by examining rational intuition as the method by which philosophers come to have the beliefs they do. Analytic rationalism, he claims, has a foundational reliance on rational intuition as a method of acquiring basic beliefs. He then argues that there are other methods that people use to gain beliefs about philosophical topics that are strikingly analogous to rational intuition and examines two of these: Christian revelation and the ritual use of hallucinogens. Hales argues that rational intuition is not epistemically superior to either of these alternative methods. There are only three possible outcomes: we have no philosophical knowledge (skepticism); there are no philosophical propositions (naturalism); or there are knowable philosophical propositions, but our knowledge of them is relative to doxastic perspective. Hales defends relativism against the charge that it is self-refuting and answers a variety of objections to this account of relativism. Finally, he examines the most sweeping objection to relativism: that philosophical propositions are not merely relatively true, because there are no philosophical propositions—all propositions are ultimately empirical, as the naturalists contend. Hales's somewhat disturbing conclusion—that intuition-driven philosophy does produce knowledge, but not absolute knowledge—is sure to inspire debate among philosophers.

Author : Larry Laudan
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022621933X
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Science and Relativism written by Larry Laudan and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, many members of the intellectual community have embraced a radical relativism regarding knowledge in general and scientific knowledge in particular, holding that Kuhn, Quine, and Feyerabend have knocked the traditional picture of scientific knowledge into a cocked hat. Is philosophy of science, or mistaken impressions of it, responsible for the rise of relativism? In this book, Laudan offers a trenchant, wide-ranging critique of cognitive relativism and a thorough introduction to major issues in the philosophy of knowledge.

Author : Steven D. Hales
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1444392484
Total Pages : 960 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Companion to Relativism written by Steven D. Hales and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-03-21 with total page 960 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Relativism presents original contributions from leading scholars that address the latest thinking on the role of relativism in the philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics. Features original contributions from many of the leading figures working on various aspects of relativism Presents a substantial, broad range of current thinking about relativism Addresses relativism from many of the major subfields of philosophy, including philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics

Author : Jack W. Meiland
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Relativism, Cognitive and Moral written by Jack W. Meiland and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Robert Hanna
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 : 0191544043
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy written by Robert Hanna and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2001-01-04 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Hanna presents a fresh view of the Kantian and analytic traditions that have dominated continental European and Anglo-American philosophy over the last two centuries, and of the relation between them. The rise of analytic philosophy decisively marked the end of the hundred-year dominance of Kant's philosophy in Europe. But Hanna shows that the analytic tradition also emerged from Kant's philosophy in the sense that its members were able to define and legitimate their ideas only by means of an intensive, extended engagement with, and a partial or complete rejection of, the Critical Philosophy. Hanna's book therefore comprises both an interpretative study of Kant's massive and seminal Critique of Pure Reason, and a critical essay on the historical foundations of analytic philosophy from Frege to Quine. Hanna considers Kant's key doctrines in the Critique in the light of their reception and transmission by the leading figures of the analytic tradition—Frege, Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, and Quine. But this is not just a study in the history of philosophy, for out of this emerges Hanna's original approach to two much-contested theories that remain at the heart of contemporary philosophy. Hanna puts forward a new 'cognitive-semantic' interpretation of transcendental idealism, and a vigorous defence of Kant's theory of analytic and synthetic necessary truth. These will make Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy compelling reading not just for specialists in the history of philosophy, but for all who are interested in these fundamental philosophical issues.

Author : Graham Long
Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
ISBN 13 : 1845402693
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Relativism and the Foundations of Liberalism written by Graham Long and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral relativism is often regarded as both fatally flawed and incompatible with liberalism. This book aims to show why such criticism is misconceived. First, it argues that relativism provides a plausible account of moral justification. Drawing on the contemporary relativist and universalist analyses of thinkers such as Harman, Nagel and Habermas, it develops an alternative account of ‘coherence relativism'. Turning to liberalism, the book argues that moral relativism is not only consistent with the claims of contemporary liberalism, but underpins those claims. The political liberalism of Rawls and Barry is founded on an unacknowledged commitment to a relativist account of justification. In combining these two elements, the book offers a new understanding of relativism, and demonstrates its relevance for contemporary liberal thought.

Author : David B Wong
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199724840
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Natural Moralities written by David B Wong and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, David B. Wong defends an ambitious and important new version of moral relativism. He does not espouse the type of relativism that says anything goes, but he does start with a relativist stance against alternative theories such that there need not be only one universal truth. Wong proposes that there can be a plurality of true moralities existing across different traditions and cultures, all with one core human question as to how we can all live together.

Author : J. David Velleman
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781783740338
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Foundations for Moral Relativism: Second Expanded Edition written by J. David Velleman and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new edition of Foundations for Moral Relativism a distinguished moral philosopher tames a bugbear of current debate about cultural difference. J. David Velleman shows that different communities can indeed be subject to incompatible moralities, because their local mores are rationally binding. At the same time, he explains why the mores of different communities, even when incompatible, are still variations on the same moral themes. The book thus maps out a universe of many moral worlds without, as Velleman puts it, "moral black holes." The six self-standing chapters discuss such diverse topics as online avatars and virtual worlds, lying in Russian and truth-telling in Quechua, the pleasure of solitude and the fear of absurdity. Accessibly written, this book presupposes no prior training in philosophy.

Author : Martin Hollis
Publisher : Mit Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262580618
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rationality and Relativism written by Martin Hollis and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors represent the complete spectrum of positions between a relativism that challenges the very concept of a single world and the idea that there are ascertainable, objective universals.