Between the Absolute and the Arbitrary

by Elgin, Catherine Z.

• ISBN13: 9780801483998
• ISBN10: 0801483999
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

In Between the Absolute and the Arbitrary, Catherine Z. Elgin maps a constructivist alternative to the standard Anglo-American conception of philosophy's problematic. Under the standard conception, unless answers to philosophical questions are absolute, they are arbitrary. Unless a philosophy is grounded in determinate, agent-neutral facts, it is right only relative to a perspective that cannot in the end be justified. Elgin charts a course between the two poles, showing how fact and value intertwine, where art and science intersect.
Between the Absolute and the Arbitrary cuts a path through philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and philosophy of art, disclosing common problems, resources, and solutions. Elgin highlights the ineliminability of values from the realm of facts, the dependence of facts on category schemes, and the ways human interests, practices, and goals affect the categories we contrive.

Author Biography

Catherine Z. Elgin has taught philosophy at Wellesley College, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Disturbances in the Field	p. 1
Unnatural Science	p. 25
Theory Reduction: A Question of Fact or a Question of Value?	p. 42
Relocating Aesthetics: Goodman's Epistemic Turn	p. 63
Facts That Don't Matter	p. 81
Restoration and Work Identity	p. 97
Translucent Belief	p. 110
Mainsprings of Metaphor	p. 131
Index and Icon Revisited	p. 137
Sign, Symbol, and System	p. 147
Making Up People and Things	p. 161
The Relativity of Fact and the Objectivity of Value	p. 176
Postmodernism, Pluralism, and Pragmatism	p. 192
Index	p. 201
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