Truth and Truthfulness by Bernard Williams

Truth and Truthfulness by Bernard Williams

What does it mean to be truthful? What role does truth play in our lives? What do we lose if we reject truthfulness? Bernard Williams explores the value of truth and finds it to be both less and more than we might imagine. Modern culture exhibits two attitudes toward truth: suspicion of being deceived (no one wants to be fooled) and scepticism that objective truth exists at all (no one wants to be naive). This tension between a demand for truthfulness and the doubt that there is any truth to be found is not an abstract paradox. It has political consequences and signals a danger that our intellectual activities, particularly in the humanities, may tear themselves to pieces. Williams's approach, in the tradition of Nietzsche's genealogy, blends philosophy, history and a fictional account of how the human concern with truth might have arisen. Without denying that we should worry about the contingency of much that we take for granted, he defends truth as an intellectual objective and a cultural value. He identifies two basic virtues of truth, accuracy and sincerity, the first of which aims at finding out the truth and the second at telling it. He describes different psychological and social forms that these virtues have taken and asks what ideas can make best sense of them today. "Truth and Truthfulness" presents a challenge to the fashionable belief that truth has no value, but equally to the traditional faith that its value guarantees itself. Bernard Williams shows us that when we lose a sense of the value of truth, we lose a lot both politically and personally and may well lose everything.

"Truth and Truthfulness is a major, wide-ranging, and comprehensive bookIt does not simply advocate the virtues of accuracy, sincerity, and authenticity; it manifests them." - Alexander Nehamas, author of Virtues of Authenticity

Bernard Williams is Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University, and also teaches philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Making Sense of Humanity, Morality, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Shame and Necessity, and Moral Luck.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780691102764
ISBN 10	0691102767
Titel	Truth and Truthfulness
Autor	Bernard Williams
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Princeton University Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2002-08-25
Seitenanzahl	344
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar