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The Problem of Truth
"The Problem of Truth" by H. Wildon Carr is a philosophical exploration of the concept of truth. The book delves into the distinction between science and philosophy, highlighting the nature of truth as a living controversy. The author discusses the problem of truth in relation to historical and present philosophical perspectives, focusing on the doctrine of pragmatism. Through dialectical arguments and logical analysis, the book seeks to unravel the complexities surrounding the concept of truth and its relation to conscious experience.
94 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 10, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 9, 2022
Great summary of current theories relating to the problem of truth.
March 9, 2017
The problem of Truth today is that it no longer seems to matter to many people.
About a hundred years ago the very nature of Truth was something of a philosophical hot potato. Immediately prior to reading this book I had read William James's take on the same thing. This book considers James's pragmatist theory alongside the competition.
Wildon Carr attractively introduces his comparative study by stating that it 'presumes no previous study of philosophy nor special knowledge of its problems.' Truth for dummies, I can handle that.
Regardless of which theory you prefer the author first establishes the understanding that we only know what we know through senseperception, therefore the 'reality then, the knowledge of which is truth, is not the immediate reality of feeling but the inferred reality of thought.'
He sets about summarising the realist, idealist, and pragmatist view in turn. The later was the recently formulated theory, which Carr distinguishes as one in which 'truth is made. In all other theories truth is found,' a more succinct way of putting it than I could find in James's own book, though he would probably have found something wrong with it.
In short the three theories, each of which he rejects as definitive, he encapsulates like this:
(1) That it is a correspondence between the idea and the reality; (2) That it is the coherence of the idea in a consistent and harmonious whole; and (3) That it is a value that we ourselves give to our ideas.
The alternative theory he plumps for is one close to pragmatism with an essential difference put forward by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who was a friend of James. If you can understand this sentence then you will understand the difference:
'Bergson teaches not only that all material reality is illusion, but also that this very illusion is the work of the intellect, that the intellect is formed for this purpose, intellect and matter being correlative'
I think I understand, but in truth I'm not sure?
About a hundred years ago the very nature of Truth was something of a philosophical hot potato. Immediately prior to reading this book I had read William James's take on the same thing. This book considers James's pragmatist theory alongside the competition.
Wildon Carr attractively introduces his comparative study by stating that it 'presumes no previous study of philosophy nor special knowledge of its problems.' Truth for dummies, I can handle that.
Regardless of which theory you prefer the author first establishes the understanding that we only know what we know through senseperception, therefore the 'reality then, the knowledge of which is truth, is not the immediate reality of feeling but the inferred reality of thought.'
He sets about summarising the realist, idealist, and pragmatist view in turn. The later was the recently formulated theory, which Carr distinguishes as one in which 'truth is made. In all other theories truth is found,' a more succinct way of putting it than I could find in James's own book, though he would probably have found something wrong with it.
In short the three theories, each of which he rejects as definitive, he encapsulates like this:
(1) That it is a correspondence between the idea and the reality; (2) That it is the coherence of the idea in a consistent and harmonious whole; and (3) That it is a value that we ourselves give to our ideas.
The alternative theory he plumps for is one close to pragmatism with an essential difference put forward by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who was a friend of James. If you can understand this sentence then you will understand the difference:
'Bergson teaches not only that all material reality is illusion, but also that this very illusion is the work of the intellect, that the intellect is formed for this purpose, intellect and matter being correlative'
I think I understand, but in truth I'm not sure?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews