Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis by Richard J. Bernstein ISBN: 0-8122-1165-0 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: November, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Probing
Comment: Equipped with a synoptic point of view, Bernstein has long worked the difficult terrain between continental philosophy and its more positivist Anglo-American counterpart. Here he traces what he believes is a key movement away from the broad modern tradition characterized by Descartes and the perennial search for philosophical foundations. Not always self-consciously, this emerging movement (Gadamer, Rorty, et. al.) rejects the Cartesian search for absolutes as ultimately futile; yet refuses to accept relativism as the only remaining recourse. The book's burden is to show how a viable 'third way' is in fact emerging from the overlaps in the movement. His discussion is stimulating, ranging from Aristotle to Kuhn to Habermas, Kant and Arendt. No doubt he has put his finger on an acutely felt issue of our skeptical age, one that lurks ubiquitously in the background of more narrowly framed topics. Yet, how effectively this third way manages to extricate itself from the either-or of objectivism vs. relativism is up to the individual reader to judge. Frankly, I was disappointed, feeling that the results were unduly vague and pointing in the direction of a sophisticated brand of sociological relativism. Be that as it may, the text includes not a single mention of post-modernism, which may date the work in the eyes of some. Still, the meta-philosophical issue Bernstein addresses can be discussed quite apart from those specific to post-moderns and their recourse to outright relativism. As always, Bernstein remains an important interpreter of international trends and is well worth the read.
Rating: 1
Summary: The book offers no answer
Comment: Richard Bernstein's book suffers from one fault: he offers no answers. Moreover, he does not even try to offer answers.
Bernstein starts by saying "There has to be some way which is beyond objectivism and and relativism". Then he goes on to examine the works of other philosophers, saying what he is for and against. But then, in the end, he offers no solution. Not only does he NOT tell us what this way "which has got to be" is, but he never draws conclusions from his readings of other philosophers. Like a film, which does not want to tell the viewer what to think, Bernstein will not say much. The book, in the end, turns out to be a REVIEW of OTHER THINKERS on the subject of going beyond objectivism and relativism. So one gets some good summaries of other thinkers on a subject with little else. That is why other reviewers of his book, in no way, state what Bernstein believes.
As a book report, it gets 3 stars. As a book with an idea, it gets one.
His essays, in other books, seem to suffer from the same fault.
Rating: 5
Summary: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Understanding
Comment: Richard Bernstein is one of the most balanced and deeply thoughtful Americans doing philosophy today. Thoroughly at home in several different schools of contemporary thought, he writes with exceptional clarity and generosity of spirit. This book is one of his most important. At a time when most Americans seem convinced that objectivism and relativism are our only options and that if objectivism is ultimately incoherent nothing remains but a relativism that ultimately makes conversation impossible, this book can be a life-saver! Respectful of what the physical and life sciences can do and contribute, Bernstein makes clear the limits of their methods and the reasonableness of turning to alternative ways of knowing and thinking for other realms of meaning, value, and reality. A careful reading of this book could save everybody years of wandering up and down blind alleys. This is philosophy written to communicate with others and to be helpful, rather than to inflate the author's ego and display sophistication. It can change the way you inhabit the world and put your feet on a path that takes you in the direction of hope and solidarity.
 |
Title: Praxis and Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity by Richard J. Bernstein ISBN: 0812210166 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory by Richard J. Bernstein ISBN: 0812277422 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: February, 1978 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty ISBN: 0691020167 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 January, 1981 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Truth and Method by Hans Georg Gadamer, Joel C. Weinsheimer, Donald G. Marshall ISBN: 0826405851 Publisher: Continuum Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences : Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation by Paul Ricoeur, John B. Thompson ISBN: 0521280028 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 31 August, 1981 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
