Book Description

Are statements of fact true or only more or less useful? This question is of vital importance, because it cuts to the core of the nature of truth; it leads to decisive choices in modern philosophy. Beneath the concept ́truth ́ serious problems defy and resist philosophic analysis; revealing and resolving them is the early focus of PHILOSOPHY THAT WORKS. The way things are, people mix up what they mean by ́truth ́ and get bound up in fallacies that condemn human knowledge to seeminly pointless relativism. But an adequate understanding of ́truth ́ transforms philosophy and individual undertanding, improves thinking itself, and strengthens education, organizations, and society. Showing how so much progress is possible is the business end of this book, the payoff of its thoughtful investigations into truth and knowledge. PHILOSOPHY THAT WORKS is an intellectual adventure, an impassioned story about navigating philosophy from its backwaters down a great river of advancing civilization. The philosopher, disillusioned with academic philosophies, begins an investigation into the many meanings of truth. He makes a lasting discovery that changes what philosophy itself can achieve and what it can mean. He faces daunting tasks but reconfigures philosophy; confusion concerning truth resolves into clear understanding. Who should join the adventure'. Not only philosophers. This is a book for everyone who likes to think. It has power, narrative conviction, and a soulful center that resonates through its pages. (From the Introduction) "...Albert Einstein once mentioned that humanity cannot solve its vexing problems at the same level of thought that produced the crisis. A higher level of thinking will require a philosophic transformation. That ́s what Philosophy That Works is all about. Despite postmodern skepticism, a simplistic true and false outlook on reality remains the commonplace of a civilization; this is the level that has produced the crisis. This book describes a basic change in the dominant paradigm of the age. It shows that a colossal mistake underlies the commonsense outlook, an error that has prevented consensus about what is real and, therefore, what life can mean: it penetrates the problem to its heart..."