Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Michael Krausz (editor), Relativism: A Contemporary Anthology ***

I am fairly well acquainted with the philosophical issues considered in this anthology, having read a lot of pragmatism and Richard Rorty. In fact, I consider myself a relativist — an ontological or epistemological relativist to be more precise.

On the plus side, this anthology includes some classic articles on the subject followed by discussion of the issues those articles raise. On the down side, many of the newer articles rehash the same arguments in less colorful language than the classics; couldn't the editor find a wider range of reactions? For the most part, the most intriguing articles to me were written by philosophers I'm already familiar with: Rorty, Nelson Goodman, Hilary Putnam, Donald Davidson.

The book is divided thematically into four sections. My favorites were section II, "Relativism, Truth, and Knowledge," and section IV, "Relativism, Culture, and Understanding." I was less interested in section III, "Moral Relativism, Objectivity, and Reason," because the objectivity of morals is a dead philosophical issue for me.

No comments:

Post a Comment