Husserl and the Question of Relativism
Title | Husserl and the Question of Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | G. Soffer |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 242 |
Release | 2012-12-06 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9401131783 |
The question of relativism is a perennial one, and as fundamental and far reaching as the question of truth itself. Is truth absolute and universal, the same everywhere and for everyone? Or is truth historically, culturally, biologically, or otherwise relative, varying from one epoch or species to another? Although the issues surrounding relativism have attracted especially intense interest of late, they continue to spark heated controversies and to pose problems lacking an obvious resolution. On the side of one prevalent form of relativism, it is argued that we must finally recognize the historical and cultural contingency of our available means of cognition, and therefore abandon as naIve the absolute conception of truth dear to traditional philosophy. According to this line of thinking, even if there were univer sally valid principles, knowledge of them would not be possible for us, and thus an absolute conception of truth must be rejected in light of the demands of critical epistemology. However, when truth is accordingly relativized to some contingent subjective cognitive background, new difficulties arise. One of the most infamous of these is the logical inconsistency of the resulting thesis of relativism itself. Yet an even more serious problem is that the relativization of truth makes truth itself contingent, thereby undermining the motivation for preferring one belief or value to another, or even to its opposite.
Husserl and the Question of Relativism
Title | Husserl and the Question of Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | Gail Anne Soffer |
Publisher | |
Pages | 556 |
Release | 1989 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Husserl and the Question of Relativism
Title | Husserl and the Question of Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | G. Soffer |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 230 |
Release | 1991-10-31 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780792312918 |
The question of relativism is a perennial one, and as fundamental and far reaching as the question of truth itself. Is truth absolute and universal, the same everywhere and for everyone? Or is truth historically, culturally, biologically, or otherwise relative, varying from one epoch or species to another? Although the issues surrounding relativism have attracted especially intense interest of late, they continue to spark heated controversies and to pose problems lacking an obvious resolution. On the side of one prevalent form of relativism, it is argued that we must finally recognize the historical and cultural contingency of our available means of cognition, and therefore abandon as naIve the absolute conception of truth dear to traditional philosophy. According to this line of thinking, even if there were univer sally valid principles, knowledge of them would not be possible for us, and thus an absolute conception of truth must be rejected in light of the demands of critical epistemology. However, when truth is accordingly relativized to some contingent subjective cognitive background, new difficulties arise. One of the most infamous of these is the logical inconsistency of the resulting thesis of relativism itself. Yet an even more serious problem is that the relativization of truth makes truth itself contingent, thereby undermining the motivation for preferring one belief or value to another, or even to its opposite.
Ancient and Modern Approaches to the Problem of Relativism
Title | Ancient and Modern Approaches to the Problem of Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew K. Davis |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 139 |
Release | 2023-05-19 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 3031223047 |
Relativism, or the claim that it is possible that the appearances and opinions of each of us are correct for each of us, and hence that any view is as true as any other, has remained a continuing problem for philosophy and science for 2,500 years. Today, because of the widespread acceptance of relativism, the problem is greater than ever before. This book argues that Plato in fact solved this problem. In the first two chapters, by means of a study of Husserl and Locke, Davis shows that it is possible to return to and take seriously Plato’s treatment of this problem. The third chapter presents Plato’s solution to it. This book is distinctive in that it shows that a problem that has been thought to be present throughout the history of Western thought was in fact solved by Plato, and in that it shows that we can, beginning from our contemporary situation, return to Plato’s solution.
Husserl’s Ethics and Practical Intentionality
Title | Husserl’s Ethics and Practical Intentionality PDF eBook |
Author | Susi Ferrarello |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 279 |
Release | 2015-12-17 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1472573757 |
Husserl's 20th-century phenomenological project remains the cornerstone of modern European philosophy. The place of ethics is of importance to the ongoing legacy and study of phenomenology itself. Husserl's Ethics and Practical Intentionality constitutes one of the major new interventions in this burgeoning field of Husserl scholarship, and offers an unrivaled perspective on the question of ethics in Husserl's philosophy through a focus on volumes not yet translated into English. This book offers a refreshing perspective on stagnating ethical debates that pivot around conceptions of relativism and universalism, shedding light on a phenomenological ethics beyond the common dichotomy.
Reason and Relativism
Title | Reason and Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | Steve Hendley |
Publisher | SUNY Press |
Pages | 274 |
Release | 1991-01-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780791407233 |
Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason deals with a problem that continues to dominate both continental and Anglo-American thought: the historical character of reason and the question of relativism. This work deals with the issue of relativism in the context of Sartre's later philosophy and contemporary debates on the social-historical character of reason as they emerge, principally, in the works of Foucault, Lyotard, Habermas, Rorty, and Feyerabend.
The Specter of Relativism
Title | The Specter of Relativism PDF eBook |
Author | Lawrence Kennedy Schmidt |
Publisher | Northwestern University Press |
Pages | 316 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780810112575 |
Specter of Relativism addresses the timely topic of relativism from the perspective of Gadamer's hermeneutics. This collection of essays explores several of the key issues in contemporary philosophy--the nature of truth, the model of conversation, and the possibility of an ethics in postmodern conditions--in the context of the work of Gadamer. Although centered on Gadamer and including the first English translation of one of his essays, the volume does not narrowly define or defend the approach of philosophical hermeneutics; the contributors present a broad range of views, in some cases championing a Gadamerian perspective, in others challenging it.