This wide-ranging philosophical exploration defends the idea of Truth (with a capital "T") against the claims of skeptics, relativists, postmodernists, and other nay-sayers. Philosopher Lenn E. Goodman builds a broad and pluralistic account that makes room for scientific, moral, religious, and artistic truth, and makes sense of mythic discourse, poetry, and fiction, without the patronizing expedient of relegating each human idiom to some separate world or the authoritarian expedient of assigning each branch of inquiry to its own dogmatic priesthood.
Goodman's catholic rationalism is open to all aspects of experience. Yet his wide sympathy for literature, the arts, and diverse religious traditions does not lead him to an indiscriminate endorsement of all comers. He is always ready to criticize wishful thinking and superstition on substantive grounds. Goodman's commitment to reason, broadly construed, allows him to steer a steady course well clear of both romantic and mechanistic extremes.
Drawing on a wide and easy acquaintance with the great figures of the philosophical tradition, from the Presocratic naturalists and the ancient Indian and Confucian thinkers to Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans, Pyrrhonists, Stoics, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic philosophers, moderns, and our own contemporaries, Goodman is always synthetic, challenging, engaging, and accessible. His vivid imagery, forceful rhetoric, lyrical passages, and glints of ironic humor make his writing an exciting excursion without a trace of scholastic aridity.
- ISBN10 1591029457
- ISBN13 9781591029458
- Publish Date 1 May 2001
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Humanities Press Intl
- Format eBook
- Pages 431
- Language English