Walking the Tightrope of Reason
Summary
The feel-good place to buy books
Walking the Tightrope of Reason by Robert J Fogelin
Human beings are both supremely rational and deeply superstitious, capable of believing just about anything and of questioning just about everything. Indeed, just as our reason demands that we know the truth, our skepticism leads to doubts we can ever really do so. In Walking the Tightrope of Reason, Robert J. Fogelin guides readers through a contradiction that lies at the very heart of philosophical inquiry. Fogelin argues that our rational faculties insist on a purely rational account of the universe, yet at the same time, the inherent limitations of these faculties ensure that we will never fully satisfy that demand. As a result of being driven to this point of paradox, we either comfort ourselves with what Kant called "metaphysical illusions" or adopt a stance of radical skepticism. No middle ground seems possible and, as Fogelin shows, skepticism, even though a healthy dose of it is essential for living a rational life, "has an inherent tendency to become unlimited in its scope, with the result that the edifice of rationality is destroyed." In much Postmodernist thought, for example, skepticism takes the extreme form of absolute relativism, denying the basis for any value distinctions and treating all truth-claims as equally groundless. How reason avoids disgracing itself, walking a fine line between dogmatic belief and self-defeating doubt, is the question Fogelin seeks to answer. Reflecting upon the ancient Greek skeptics as well as such thinkers as Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Whitman, this book takes readers into-and through-some of philosophy's most troubling paradoxes.
.. splendid new book ... lucidly expounding for a general audience an argument set out in greater detail in an earlier, more technical work. The Philosophers' Magazine
Dartmouth College's Robert Fogelin is a professor of philosophy and the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Humanities. Pyrrhonian Reflections, Wittgenstein, and Hume's Skepticism are among his many works.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780195160260 |
| ISBN 10 | 0195160266 |
| Title | Walking the Tightrope of Reason |
| Author | Robert J Fogelin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Inc |
| Year published | 2003-07-17 |
| Number of pages | 218 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |