Challenging Postmodernism Philosophy and the Politics of Truth

by DETMER, DAVID

• ISBN13: 9781591021018
• ISBN10: 1591021014
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Humanities Press Intl

Summary

In this accessible, non-technical discussion of the controversies surrounding the ideas of truth, philosopher David Detmer faults both the critics of postmodernism for entangling the philosophical discussion of truth with their disapproval of postmodernist political views and the postmodernist critics of objective truth for the defective logic and incoherence of their critique. Unlike most analytic philosophers, Detmer engages extensively and directly with the texts of postmodernists. He provides substantial discussions of Husserl, Sartre, Rorty, and Chomsky, and also addresses the topics of journalistic objectivity, scientific truth, political correctness, and other timely issues. While sympathetic to Continental philosophy, Detmer nonetheless defends the idea of objective truth and attempts to show that doing so is a matter of considerable political importance.

Author Biography

David Detmer is professor of philosophy at Purdue University, Calumet

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	7	(4)
Introduction	11	(4)
Chapter 1: Husserl's Critique of Relativism	15	(22)
Chapter 2: Self-Referential Inconsistency	37	(30)
Chapter 3: The Argument from Disagreement	67	(30)
Chapter 4: Sartre's Defense of Truth	97	(20)
Chapter 5: Truth in Ethics and Politics: Sartre vs. Rorty	117	(42)
Chapter 6: What Is Objectivity? Sartre vs.the Journalists	159	(66)
Chapter 7: The Anti-Truth Squad	225	(112)
Chapter 8: The Limitations of Retionality and Science?
Noam Chomsky, O.J. Simpson, and Alan Sokal
Chapter 9: Chomsky, "Political Correctness," and the Politics of Truth	337	(10)
Index	347