Truth: Engagements Across Philosophical Traditions (Blackwell Readings in Continental Philosophy)

385 Pages·2005·1.85 MB·English

by  José Medina

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Praise for
Truth
Engagements Across Philosophical Traditions
“There are no longer two dialogues – analytic and continental.It is all one
now,and more complicated than ever.This collection is an indispensable point
of entry to the new conversations.”
Barry Allen,McMaster University
“It is virtually impossible to imagine a more useful collection of texts on this
thorny philosophical topic.There is no pretense that herein lies the truth about
truth,but there is the realization of a set of complex issues illuminated from
radically diverse,yet often surprisingly overlapping,perspectives.”
Vincent Colapietro,Pennsylvania State University
“While there are many collections concerning debates about truth,this book is
unique.It not only provides a paradigm for doing philosophy in a pluralistic
manner;it also shows how fruitful it can be.”
James Bohman,St.Louis University
“This carefully crafted anthology on what Medina and Wood call ‘the
normative turn’in the debate on truth provides a welcome opportunity to put
into practice a philosophical pluralism that is too often absent from the
classroom.”
Robert Bernasconi,University of Memphis
“This is a remarkable anthology of diverse readings on one of the central
philosophical topics.Not many books nestle texts by Heidegger,Levinas,and
Catherine Elgin next to one another.Still fewer try to help readers see how
thinkers like these offer conflicting,but mutually illuminating,approaches to
the same subject matter.This volume promises to help bridge the regrettable
rift between ‘continental ’and ‘analytic’ways of doing philosophy,and that is
something to be celebrated.”
Harvey Cormier,Stony Brook University
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BLACKWELL READINGS IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Series Editor:Simon Critchley,University of Essex
Each volume in this series provides a detailed introduction to and overview of a
central philosophical topic in the Continental tradition.In contrast to the author-
based model that has hitherto dominated the reception of the Continental
philosophical tradition in the English-speaking world, this series presents the
central issues of that tradition,topics that should be of interest to anyone concerned
with philosophy.Cutting across the stagnant ideological boundaries that mark the
analytic/Continental divide, the series will initiate discussions that reflect the
growing dissatisfaction with the organization of the English-speaking philosophical
world.Edited by a distinguished international forum of philosophers,each volume
provides a critical overview of a distinct topic in Continental philosophy
through a mix of both classic and newly commissioned essays from both
philosophical traditions.
1 The Body:Classic and Contemporary Readings
Edited and introduced by Donn Welton
2 Race
Edited by Robert Bernasconi
3 The Religious
Edited by John D.Caputo
4 The Political
Edited by David Ingram
5 The Ethical
Edited by Edith Wyschogrod and Gerald P.McKenny
6 Continental Philosophy of Science
Edited by Gary Gutting
7 Truth:Engagements Across Philosophical Traditions
Edited by José Medina and David Wood
8 Self and Subjectivity
Edited by Kim Atkins
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Truth
Engagements Across
Philosophical Traditions
Edited by
José Medina and David Wood
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Editorial material and organization © 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
blackwell publishing
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108 Cowley Road,Oxford OX4 1JF,UK
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The right of José Medina and David Wood to be identified as the Authors of the
Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK
Copyright,Designs,and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a
retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording or otherwise,except as permitted by the
UK Copyright,Designs,and Patents Act 1988,without the prior permission of
the publisher.
First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Truth:engagements across philosophical traditions / edited by José Medina and
David Wood.
p. cm.– (Blackwell readings in Continental philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-4051-1549-1 (alk.paper) – ISBN 1-4051-1550-5 (pbk.:
alk.paper) 1. Truth. I. Medina,José,1968– II. Wood,David (David C.)
III. Title. IV. Series.
BC171.T75 2005
121 – dc22
2004016923
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments x
General Introduction
José Medina and David Wood 1
Part I The Value of Truth:“Revaluing our highest values” 7
Introduction 9
1 Friedrich Nietzsche
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense 14
From The Will to Power 24
From Beyond Good and Evil 24
From Twilight of the Idols 25
2 William James
Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth 26
Suggested Reading 39
Part II Representation, Subjectivity, and Intersubjectivity 41
Introduction 43
3 Søren Kierkegaard
Truth,Subjectivity and Communication 48
4 Ludwig Wittgenstein
Remarks on Truth 61
From On Certainty 61
From Culture and Value 68
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vi CONTENTS
5 Donald Davidson
Truth and Meaning 69
6 Hilary Putnam
The Face of Cognition 80
Suggested Reading 92
Part III Truth, Consensus, and Transcendence 93
Introduction 95
7 Richard Rorty
Representation,Social Practice,and Truth 99
8 Jürgen Habermas
Richard Rorty’s Pragmatic Turn 109
9 John McDowell
Towards Rehabilitating Objectivity 130
10 Paul Feyerabend
Notes on Relativism 146
Suggested Reading 157
Part IV Non-Propositional Truth: Language,Art, and World 159
Introduction 161
11 Gianni Vattimo
The Truth of Hermeneutics 168
From “The Decline of the Subject and the Problem of Testimony” 181
12 Joseph Margolis
Relativism and Cultural Relativity 182
13 Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Perception and Truth 197
From “An Unpublished Text” 197
From “Cézanne’s Doubt” 203
From “Reflection and Interrogation” 205
14 Jacques Derrida
The End of the Book and the Beginning of Writing 207
Suggested Reading 226
Part V Disclosure and Testimony 227
Introduction 229
15 Edmund Husserl
Self-Evidence and Truth 235
“Relativism in an Extended Sense” 242
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CONTENTS vii
16 Martin Heidegger
On the Essence of Truth 243
From “The Origin of the Work of Art” 258
17 Emmanuel Levinas
Truth of Disclosure and Truth of Testimony 261
18 Catherine Z.Elgin
Word Giving,Word Taking 271
Suggested Reading 287
Part VI Truth and Power 289
Introduction 291
19 Hannah Arendt
Truth and Politics 295
20 Michel Foucault
The Discourse on Language 315
From “Truth and Power” 333
21 Linda Martín Alcoff
Reclaiming Truth 336
Suggested Reading 350
Part VII A Supplement: Radicalizations of Truth 351
Introduction 353
22 Selections
From Slavoj Zˇizˇek,For They Know Not What They Do 359
From Judith Butler,Bodies that Matter 359
From Luce Irigaray,“The Power of Discourse and the Subordination
of the Feminine” 360
From Luce Irigaray,“Veiled Lips” 361
From Jean Baudrillard,“The Precession of the Simulacra” 361
From Gilles Deleuze,Cinema 2:The Time-Image 363
Suggested Reading 366
Index 367
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PREFACE
This editorial project could not have been carried out without the enthusiastic support
of Jeff Dean at Blackwell, for whose constant help and encouragement we are most
grateful.We are also indebted to all our colleagues and graduate students at Vanderbilt
University who have stimulated our conversation and provided the ideal atmosphere
for crossing boundaries and maintaining a dialogue across philosophical traditions.We
are particularly grateful to those graduates and undergraduates to whom we experi-
mentally introduced some of these ideas in topic-oriented courses:Medina,“Truth and
Interpretation,”Fall 2000;Wood,“The Paradoxes ofTruth,”Spring 2003.Special thanks
go to our editorial assistant Aaron Simmons who has worked tirelessly and patiently
with us on this project and (with Chad Maxson) prepared the index.
We have shared equal responsibility in the development of this project from its incep-
tion to its completion.All the selections and introductory essays are the product of our
collaborative work over the last four years.For the record,although we share respon-
sibility for each of the sections,José Medina is the primary author of the introductions
to sections 1,2,and 3,and David Wood of those to sections 4,5,and 6.We co-wrote
the General Introduction and the concluding Supplement.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce
the copyright material in this book:
1. Friedrich Nietzsche,“On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense,” pp. 79–91 in
Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietzsche’s Notebooks of the Early 1870s, ed.
and trans. Daniel Breazeale (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979).
© by Daniel Breazeale.Reprinted with permission.
1b. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J.
Hollingdale (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), pp. 289, 292. Reprinted by
permission of the publisher.
1c. Friedrich Nietzsche,Beyond Good and Evil,trans.Helen Zimmern (Edinburgh and
London:T.N.Foulis,1909),pp.5–6.
1d. Friedrich Nietzsche,Twilight of the Idols,trans.R.J.Hollingdale (London:Penguin,
1968),p.41.Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
2. William James,“Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth,”in Pragmatism:A New Name
for Some Old Ways of Thinking (London:Longman,1907),pp.197–236.
3. Søren Kierkegaard,excerpts from Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophi-
cal Fragments,Vol. 1:Text, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna. H. Hong
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 72–82, 85–6, 91–2, 106–8,
189–94, 198–200, 202–5. © 1992 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by
permission of Princeton University Press.
4. Ludwig Wittgenstein,On Certainty,ed.G.E.M.Anscombe and G.H.von Wright,
trans. Denis Paul and G. E. M.Anscombe (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1969), pp.
15–18, 20–3, 27–8 (§ 94–117, 137–62, 191–206). Reprinted by permission of
Blackwell Publishing.
4b. Ludwig Wittgenstein,Culture and Value:A Selection from the Posthumous Remains,
edited by G.H von Wright in collaboration with Heikki Nyman (second edition
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
of the text by Alois Pichler,translated by Peter Winch) (Oxford:Blackwell,1998),
pp.41,64.This book was originally published as Vermischte Bemerkungen in 1977
(revised second edition 1994).Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing.
5. Donald Davidson,Inquiries Into Truth and Interpretation (Oxford:Clarendon Press:
1984),pp.22–36.Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
6. Hilary Putnam, excerpts from “The Face of Cognition,” in The Threefold Cord:
Mind,Body,and World (New York:Columbia University Press,1999),pp.49–59,
64–70.Reprinted by permission of Columbia University Press.
7. Richard Rorty,“Representation, Social Practise, and Truth,” from Philosophical
Studies 54 (1988), pp. 215–28. Reprinted with kind permission of Kluwer
Academic Publishers and the author.
8. Jürgen Habermas,“Richard Rorty’s Pragmatic Turn,”in Rorty and His Critics,ed.
Robert Brandom (Oxford:Blackwell:2000),p.32 (excerpt),37–55.Reprinted by
permission of Blackwell Publishing.
9. John McDowell,“Towards Rehabilitating Objectivity,” in Rorty and His Critics,
ed.Robert Brandom (Oxford:Blackwell,2000),pp.109–23.Reprinted by per-
mission of Blackwell Publishing.
10. Paul Feyerabend,“Notes on Relativism,”in Farewell to Reason (London and New
York:Verso,1987),pp.49–62.Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
11. Gianni Vattimo,“The Truth of Hermeneutics,”© 1991 from Questioning Founda-
tions,ed.Hugh Silverman (London:Routledge,1991),pp.11–28,255–6 (notes).
Reprinted by permission of Routledge/Taylor & Francis Books,Inc.
11b. Gianni Vattimo,excerpts from The Adventure of Difference:Philosophy after Nietzsche
and Heidegger,trans.Cyprian Blamires (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,
1993),pp.40,41,50,52,54,58.Reprinted by permission of Polity Press.
12. Joseph Margolis, excerpts from “Relativism and Cultural Relativity,” in What,
After All,Is a Work of Art?:Lectures in the Philosophy of Art (University Park,PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press,1999),pp.41–65.© 1999 by The Pennsylva-
nia State University.Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
13. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “An Unpublished Text” by Maurice Merleau-Ponty:
A Prospectus of His Work, trans.Arleen B. Dallery, in Primacy of Perception, ed.
James M. Edie (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964), pp. 3–11.
Reprinted by permission of Éditions Gallimard and Northwestern University
Press.
13b. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, excerpts from “Cézanne’s Doubt,” in Sense and Non-
Sense, trans.Hubert L.Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus (Evanston,IL:North-
western University Press,1964),pp.13–16.Reprinted by permission of Éditions
Gallimard and Northwestern University Press.
13c. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, excerpts from “Reflection and Interrogation,” in The
Visible and the Invisible, ed. Claude Lefort, trans.Alphonso Lingis (Evanston, IL: