false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191029052m/1679677.jpg 1679677 1 "Terrific. .The dialogues are great fun. I sat back and enjoyed it." ---William H. Shaw "Total devastation. Splendid book. An absolutely first class piece of work." ---Antony Flew Some say we can't really know anything, unless we first irrationally accept some things blindly on faith. Is that true? And what is truth, anyway? Is objective truth a bankrupt notion, as postmodernists say? They also say observations are always theory-laden and everything is socially constructed, "including giraffes." Of course, this means "all knowledge is essentially political," and "science is best seen as a socially constructed discourse that legitimates its power by presenting itself as truth." Worse than that, "there is no procedure called 'turning to the facts'.there is no procedure of 'justification in light of the facts' which can be opposed to consilience of one's own opinion with those of others." Rather, "the notion of accurate representation is simply an automatic and empty compliment we pay to beliefs which help us to do what we want to do." Unfortunately, postmodernists didn't get that way on account of ignoring the teachings of the Philosophy department, but on account of sincerely imbibing them. The terrible truth is that postmodernism is what happens when somebody who believes what he reads, reads the Philosophy canon. Avoiding technical jargon and presented in the form of a spirited dialogue between a professor and student, The Slightest Philosophy attacks what it sees as the real roots of postmodernism: the skeptical/anti-realist rut philosophy has been in since the eighteenth century. Opposing the canon from a position of naïve realism, the book's refutation of epistemological skepticism applies a method usually called abduction, or argument to the best explanation. The unexpected power of this pedestrian approach becomes apparent when it finally proves its mettle against philosophy's scariest monsters, including the Cartesian Demon, the Brain in the Vat, the Problem of the Criterion, and Hume's Riddle of Induction. Along the way, The Slightest Philosophy also provides a snappy introduction to the central controversies in philosophy. Not only will it make you laugh, it also renders compelling the unavoidable questions too often made to seem obscure. Rarely has epistemology seemed so accessible as in the hands of a writer Antony Flew called "never dull." 1675938 19 7 2007 The Slightest Philosophy total:8|5:3|4:2|3:1|2:2| 8 30 44 5 4 1 false false Mon Mar 17 20:35:01 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 11 21:54:14 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 22:17:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 16 09:05:34 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 05 23:09:56 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 23:12:32 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Mon Nov 10 16:17:24 -0800 2008 Mon Aug 17 16:06:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue May 26 07:54:35 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 07:55:58 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed May 27 20:13:40 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 20:14:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 24 11:48:51 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 11:48:51 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 05:25:52 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 05:26:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 06 12:41:27 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 12:41:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:18:47 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 00:18:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 28 13:06:38 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 13:06:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 30 18:08:34 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 18:08:34 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed May 13 01:49:22 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 01:49:22 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Mar 03 13:13:28 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 13:13:28 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Feb 28 13:38:12 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 13:38:12 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 19 16:48:44 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 16:49:29 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jan 02 04:30:21 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 04:30:37 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jan 01 13:12:14 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 13:12:21 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Dec 19 08:45:35 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 08:45:59 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Mon Nov 10 07:42:47 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 07:42:47 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Thu Oct 23 08:34:51 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 23 08:34:53 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1679677