Worlds of Truth A Philosophy of Knowledge

by Scheffler, Israel

• ISBN13: 9781405191708
• ISBN10: 1405191708
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-20
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Worlds of Truth: A Philosophy of Knowledge explicates and builds upon a half century of philosophical work by the noted philosopher Israel Scheffler. Propounds a new doctrine of plurealism which maintains the existence of multiple real worlds Offers a defense of absolute truth, which denies certainty and eschews absolutism, and defends systematic relativity, objectivity, and fallibilism Emphasizes a wide range of pragmatic interests: epistemology and scientific development, cognition and emotion, science and ethics, ritual and culture, and art and science

Author Biography

Israel Scheffler is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education and Philosophy Emeritus at Harvard University and serves as Scholar-in-Residence at the Mandel Center at Brandeis University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a founding member of the National Academy of Education and a past president of both the Philosophy of Science Association and the Charles S. Peirce Society. Among his various books are  The Anatomy of Inquiry (1963), Science and Subjectivity (1967), Four Pragmatists (1974), Beyond the Letter (1979), and Symbolic Worlds: Art, Science, Language, Ritual (1997).

Table of Contents

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Inquiry:1. Justification1. Beliefs2. Access to Truth3. Cogito Ergo Sum4. Mathematical Certainty5. Classical Logic6. C. I. Lewis' Empiricism7. Access as a Metaphor8. J. F. Fries and K. Popper9. Voluntarism and Linearity10. One-Way Justification11. Beginning in the Middle12. Justification, Contextual and Comparative13. Justification in the Empirical Sciences14. Circularity versus Linearity15. Democratic Controls16. Interactionism2. Truth1. Allergy to Absolute Truth2. Provisionality and Truth3. Truth versus Verification4. Truth and Fixity5. Transparency, Tarski, and Carnap6. Truth and Certainty7. Sentences as Truth Candidates8. Theoretical Terms9. Varieties of Instrumentalism10. Pragmatism and Instrumentalism11. Systems, Simplicity, Reduction12. Crises in Science13. Reduction and Expansion3. Worlds1. Philosophies of Truth2. Operationism and Truth3. Version-Dependence4. Differences among Scientifically Oriented Philosophers5. Monism, Pluralism, Plurealism6. Realism versus Irrealism7. A Theory of Everything8. The Status of Ethics9. Emotive Theories; Ayer and Stevenson10. Moore's Ethical Intuitionism11. Dewey and Ethical Naturalism12. Symbol, Reference, and RitualPart II: Related Pragmatic Themes:4. Belief and MethodIntroduction1. Problems of Pragmatism and Pragmatic Responses2. Peirce's Theory of Belief, Doubt, and Inquiry3. Peirce's Comparison of Methods4. Difficulties in Peirce's Treatment5. An Epistemological Interpretation6. The Primacy of Method5. Action and Commitment6. Emotion and Cognition1. Emotions in the Service of Cognition2. Cognitive EmotionsIndex