The Crane's Walk by Jeremy Barris

The Crane's Walk by Jeremy Barris

In The Crane's Walk, Jeremy Barris seeks to show that we can conceive and live with a pluralism of standpoints with conflicting standards for truth--with the truth of each being entirely unaffected by the truth of the others. He argues that Plato's work expresses this kind of pluralism, and that this pluralism is important in its own right, whether or not we agree about what Plato's standpoint is.
The longest tradition of Plato scholarship identifies crucial faults in Plato's theory of Ideas. Barris argues that Plato deliberately displayed those faults, because he wanted to demonstrate that basic kinds of error or illogic have dimensions that are crucial to the establishing of truth. These dimensions legitimate a paradoxical coordination of logically incompatible conceptions of truth. Connecting this idea with emerging currents of Plato scholarship, he emphasizes, in addition to the dialogues' arguments, the importance of their nonargumentative features, including drama, myths, fictions, anecdotes, and humor. These unanalyzed nonargumentative features function rigorously, as a lever with which to examine the enterprise of rational argument itself, without presupposing its standards or illegitimately assimilating any position to the standards of another.
Today, communities are torn apart by conflicts within and between a host of different pluralist and absolutist commitments. The possibility developed in this book-a coordination of absolute and relative truth that allows an understanding of some relativist and some absolutist positions as being fully legitimate and as capable of existing in a relation to their opposites-may contribute to perspectives for resolving these conflicts.

"Argues that Plato deliberately displayed faults in his theory of ideas" -The Chronicle of Higher Education "An absolutely astonishing and original book." -- -Daniel Boyarin University of California, Berkeley "Barris seeks to prove that a certain contradiction pertains to the nature of truth and that this is perfectly in order: that one can conceive and live in the context of a plurality of standpoints, each with different standards for truth, while the truth of each is also entirely unaffected by the truth of others...Recommended." -Choice "Barris' command of Plato scholarship is notable for its breadth as well as its thoroughness and relevance to detail." -- -Peter Manchester Stony Brook University

JEREMY BARRIS is Professor of Philosophy at Marshall University and author, most recently, of The Crane's Walk: Plato, Pluralism, and the Inconstancy of Truth (Fordham).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780823229130
ISBN 10	0823229130
Title	The Crane's Walk
Author	Jeremy Barris
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Fordham University Press
Year published	2009-04-15
Number of pages	360
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.