Truth & Objectivity - Hardcover

Wright, Crispin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674910869 ISBN 13: 9780674910867

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Philosophy, for all its seeking after truth, must endlessly grapple with questions about the nature and status of truth. Is there, for example, such a thing as fully objective truth, or is our talk of "truth" merely a projection onto the work of what we find acceptable in moral argument, scientific theory, mathematical discourse? Such questions are at the centre of "Truth and Objectivity", which offers an original viewpoint on the place of "realism" in philosophical inquiry. Crispin Wright proposes a new framework for the discussion of the claims of the realists, who think of truth as fully objective, and the anti-realists, who do not. This framework rejects the classical "deflationary" conception of truth yet allows both disputants to respect the intuition that judgements, whose status they contest, are at least semantically fitted for truth and may often justifiably be regarded as true. The real issues that must be resolved if the appropriateness of realist and anti-realist intuitions about a range of judgements is to be properly appraised are different, and are here developed in detail from a radically new perspective. In the course of his argument, Wright offers original critical discussions of many central concerns of philosophers interested in realism, including the "deflationary" conception of truth, internal realist truth, scientific realism and the theoreticity of observation, truth and "correspondence to fact", the role of moral states of affairs in explanations of moral beliefs, anti-realism about content, and the "quietism" about this whole tradition of debate favoured by some philosophers of Wittgensteinian sympathies.

About this title

Review

A milestone in the discussion of realism -- Jim Edwards "Mind" Besides its thorough and subtle examination of the multiple criteria of realism, the merit of "Truth and Objectivity" is to have shown how the naive picture of 'objective facts' fragments under scrutiny, to the point that it becomes unclear that we should continue to speak of realism and anti-realism within a domain as if they were definitive positions. -- Paul Horwich "Times Literary Supplement" conceptual instruments of contemporary analytic philosophy. A milestone in the discussion of realism fragments under scrutiny, to the point that it becomes unclear that we should continue to speak of realism and anti-realism within a domain as if they were definitive positions. Besides its thorough and subtle examination of [the] multiple criteria of realism, the merit of "Truth and Objectivity" is to have shown how the naive picture of 'objective facts' fragments under scrutiny, to the point that it becomes unclear that we should continue to speak of realism and anti-realism within a domain as if they were definitive positions.--Paul Horwich "Times Literary Supplement " "Truth and Objectivity" is a strikingly resourceful and serious book, imbued with respect for the difficulty of philosophical problems and a readiness to probe them with all the conceptual instruments of contemporary analytic philosophy.--timothy Williamson "International Journal of Philosophical Studies " A milestone in the discussion of realism--Jim Edwards "Mind " Full of interesting ideas and challenging arguments, --Frank Jackson "Philosophical Books "

About the Author

Crispin Wright is Leverhulme Research Professor and Bishop Wardlaw Professor at the University of St. Andrews and is Global Distinguished Professor at New York University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674910869
• ISBN 13: 9780674910867
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262