1. The Antinomies of Truth
2. Truth, Doubt and the Philosophers
3. The Truth Radicals
4. The Social Construction of Truth
5. Politics, Ideology and Evolutionary Biology
6. Wishful Thinking and Epistemological Confusion
7. Institutions, Academe and Truth
8. Why Truth Matters
Jeremy Stangroom is the author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Riddle and its sequels. His writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Daily Telegraph, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. Ophelia Benson is editor of www.butterfliesandwheels.com, deputy editor of The Philosophers' Magazine and co-author, with Jeremy Stangroom, of Why Truth Matters. She is also a frequent contributor to Free Inquiry.
'Though its arguments are simple, straightforward and
unpretentious, the book is still remarkably effective in retaining
the interest of specialists. Although perhaps is even more
successful for its care in not showing, at the same time,
condescension towards lay readers. In so doing, it teaches by
example.' ~ J. Elias Saidennunez, Lund University, Consciousness,
Literature and the Arts, Vol 7 No. 3, Dec 2006
*J. Elias Saidennunez*
In this accessible text, the editors of the
Butterfliesandwheels.com website critically examine the current
trend of skepticism regarding the reality, meaning, possibility and
importance of the truth. Calling for a return to the intellectual
tradition of the Enlightenment, they expose the faulty thinking of
everyone from religious fundamentalists and Holocaust deniers to
relativist intellectuals and postmodernist academics. Reference &
Research Book News, February 2007.
Reviewed on Classic FM's Classic Newsnight - 26 Sept 2007 'A
clear, accessible and hugely important account of what it is to be
rational. Popular philosophy at its best.'
"Benson and Stangroom, authors of The Dictionary of Fashionable
Nonsense (2004), hearken back to a decidedly unfashionable
Enlightenment ideal of objective and scientifically verifiable
truth battling the obscurantist forces of relativism, skepticism,
faith, and identity politics. The authors are not academics, and
their book is written for a lay audience, so although they do
evaluate the arguments of some scholars (especially in a couple of
chapters on the sociology of science), they as frequently turn to
newspapers for contemporary examples of the disregard for truth
(e.g., a tobacco company suppressing medical research damaging to
its interests, a pro-Palestinian professor shouting down Jewish
students). This element of social critique is the most interesting
part of the book..." - C. S. Seymour, Wayland Baptist Univeristy-
Choice, October 2006
*Choice*
Postmodernism is often billed as attacking truth and science. This
is how it is presented in the valuable little book Why Truth
Matters, by the editors of the sceptical website
butterfliesandwheels.com, Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom. They
mount a spirited counterattack, reminding us - in the way that
Cambridge philosopher GE Moore was famous for doing - that if it
comes to a battle for hearts and minds, basic convictions of common
sense and science beat philosophical subtleties hands down. Where
Brian King horrifies us with his liars, Benson and Stangroom reveal
a parallel rogues' gallery of social constructivists, who look at
how individuals and groups participate in the creation of their own
perceived reality. These "rogues" include the feminist Sandra
Harding and the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, but the doyen must
surely be the French philosopher of science Bruno Latour. Latour's
confusion of words and things led him to the precipice of denying
that there could have been dinosaurs before the term was invented.
Presumably a similar argument would show that nobody before Crick
and Watson had DNA. Why Truth Matters is an excellent example of
philosophy done well but also, and not coincidentally, made
accessible and exciting. Truth matters, it tells us "not in a dull
perfunctory dutiful sense, but in a real lived felt sense - ‘on the
pulses' as Keats put it".
*Financial Times*
"...valuable little book..." - Simon Blackburn, Financial Times
*Financial Times*
"Why truth matters is an excellent example of philosophy done well
but also, and not coincidentally, made accessible and exciting." ~
Simon Blackburn, Financial Times
*Financial Times*
'A sassy and profound response to [a] cascade of superstition and
silliness ... Benson and Stangroom answer the clotted, barely
readable sentences of the postmodernists with sentences so clear
you could swim in them. There should be a law demanding every
purchase of a Jacques Derrida "book" be accompanied with a free
copy of this shimmering, glimmering answer.'
*Independent, The*
"The writing is superbly engaging, and each chapter is well argued.
But the book's strong point is its reasonable and concise overview
of the major arguments and viewpoints directly and indirectly
limiting the precedence of truth. This overview allows readers to
grasp easily not only each argument but also the subtle patterns
into which the arguments connect. Though easy to follow, the text
does assume a fair amount of prior reading. Recommended for
academic collections and larger public systems with suitable
demand."
*Library Journal*
Book review in The Guardian, Steven Poole's Non-fiction Choice
*The Guardian*
'Benson and Stangroom effectively uncover the way academic
institutions and cultures can generate pressures to create more and
more elaborate "Theory".'
*Times Literary Supplement*
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