What is truth? What value should we see in or attribute to it?
The war over the meaning and utility of truth is at the center of
contemporary philosophical debate, and its arguments have rocked the
foundations of philosophical practice. In this book, the American
pragmatist Richard Rorty and the French analytic philosopher Pascal
Engel present their radically different perspectives on truth and its
correspondence to reality.
Rorty doubts that the notion of truth can be of any practical use and
points to the preconceptions that lie behind truth in both the
intellectual and social spheres. Engel prefers a realist conception,
defending the relevance and value of truth as a norm of belief and
inquiry in both science and the public domain. Rorty finds more danger
in using the notion of truth than in getting rid of it. Engel thinks it
is important to hold on to the idea that truth is an accurate
representation of reality.
In Rorty's view, epistemology is an artificial construct meant to
restore a function to philosophy usurped by the success of empirical
science. Epistemology and ontology are false problems, and with their
demise goes the Cartesian dualism of subject and object and the ancient
problematic of appearance and reality. Conventional "philosophical
problems," Rorty asserts, are just symptoms of the professionalism that
has disfigured the discipline since the time of Kant. Engel, however, is
by no means as complacent as Rorty in heralding the "end of truth," and
he wages a fierce campaign against the "veriphobes" who deny its value.
What's the Use of Truth? is a rare opportunity to experience each side
of this impassioned debate clearly and concisely. It is a subject that
has profound implications not only for philosophical inquiry but also
for the future study of all aspects of our culture.
