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Title: Truth : A History and a Guide for the Perplexed by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto ISBN: 0-312-27494-7 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 12 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Necessary Corrective for our Times
Comment: We live in an spiritually blighted era when people don't know or care what the meaning of is is. The idea of any transcendant ideal has no value to society. Not only do people not care what truth is, they would not know what to do with it if they found it. This book is a remarkable examination of that modern failure of the soul and a thoughtful examination of how truth has been sought throughout history. The bulk of the book consists of a review of the four different methods of seeking the truth, from "gut feelings" to empirical evidence. The final chapter looks at how modern Western civilization has abandoned the quest for truth, falling prey to such lunacies as deconstructionism. Perhaps the most important point the author makes is that when a people has abandoned the search for the truth, they are easy prey for lies. We see this in Washington, in the media and in academia today. We ignore this trend at our peril. If we want to preserve our freedoms, we must become more attuned to the truth. Dr. Fernandez-Armesto's book is a good place to begin.
Rating: 5
Summary: A introductory history to an important philosophical topic
Comment: This is not a book of philosophy, but rather philosophical history. It is an extremely fast survey of philosophical thought through the millennia of human history all around the world in a broad variety of cultures. Experts in any of the fields covered in this book will surely find their specialty too cursorily treated, but the point of the book is not the details of the points made.
The issue here is how human beings have wrestled with the concept of Truth throughout history. Does it exist (it is not a modern question)? How can you tell what is True? How do you communicate it? I found the author's skillful demonstration that the seemingly modern focus on private meaning and internal construction to be the resurfacing of a very old issue.
Proffesor Fernandez-Armesto points out that while no system ever devised can irrefutably demonstrate Truth to the satisfaction of everyone, no approach declaring the death of meaning has also been a self-contradictory system of faith. I am a believer in the validity of an independent external reality that can be sought and, in part, known. But whether known or not, it courses on its way with or without us. Its reality is not subjective or open to societal interpretation. Our interpretations of it are, but it can be demonstrated that some interpretations are better than others. Some can land rovers on Mars and others cannot.
I think that this short book should be read by nearly everyone, whether you agree with its thesis or not, or the author's summaries or not. The sheer breadth of topics in only 229 pages can provide a wonderful introduction to further study.
Rating: 2
Summary: There've been better attempts
Comment: So, Felipe Fernandes-Armesto is a great historian, truth. He is no philosopher, also truth. However, it is important to understand that this book is meant as history, not as philosophy. What the author intends is to portray the different perceptions of truth that have been developed throughout history. He does a great amount of research and the work is properly developed, however, he doesn't keep his distance in this one. He forgets that he intends only to portray, neither to support, not contradict different points of view.
This book lacks the cold view of the sckeptical historian that would create the propper environment for such a work. Better examples of truth understandig throughout history might be found after studying history itself. I would ratner recommend "The Golden Bough" by Sir James, and suggest "Anacalypsis" by Godfrey Higgins, if you can get your hands on any of them.
One thing to keep in mind though, truth never ceases to be theleology, a distant explanation, even if it comes through scientific theory. To understand this will help understand the variegated points of view about truth throughout history.
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Title: The Perversion of Autonomy: Coercion and Constraints in a Liberal Society by Willard Gaylin, Bruce Jennings ISBN: 0878409068 Publisher: Georgetown University Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Who's Afraid of Adam Smith? How the Market Got Its Soul by Peter J. Dougherty ISBN: 0471184772 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 16 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465081428 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 19 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Democracy And Education by John Dewey ISBN: 0684836319 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Jose Ortega y. Gasset ISBN: 0393310957 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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