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Truth Paperback – March 24, 2010

by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Author)

4.0 26 ratings

We need a history of truth - though until now no-one has tried to write one. We need it to test the claim that truth is just a name for opinions which suit the demands of society or the convenience of élites. We need to be able to tell whether truth is changeful or eternal, embedded in time or outside it, universal or varying from place to place.We need to know how we have got to where we are in the history of truth - how our society has come to lose faith in the reality of it and lose interest in the search for it. We need a history of truth to illuminate the unique predicament of our times and - Felipe Fernández-Armesto argues - help us escape from it. He shows how - at different times, in different societies - people have tried to tell the difference between truth and falsehood. And he exposes the concepts of truth which have underpinned those techniques.All truth-finding can be reduced, he argues, to a few basic types, which have always been available but which have been combined in varying proportions. They are still useful. They can still help us survive contemporary uncertainty and rebuild life after doubt.This is a book of unusual short, clear, readable, opinionated - but uncompromising in raising big issues, using rich language and embracing a vast range.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Black Swan
Publication date

March 24, 2010
Dimensions

5.08 x 0.63 x 7.8 inches
ISBN-10

055277636X
ISBN-13

978-0552776363
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Swan (March 24, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 055277636X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0552776363
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.63 x 7.8 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.0 26 ratings

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Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

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Doc S

An amazing breadth of material systematized with wit

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2000

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The author covers references from an amazing array of historical eras and, seemingly, from all parts of the globe with a written tradition. His categorization of the types of "truth" is brilliant. What's better, he knows how to write and avoids anything resembling a dull catalog of contrasting views. He is not afraid to voice opinions, unlike many other authors. Also, he is not afraid to attack some of the nihilistic tendencies of "modern scholarship." If you agree that these are simply empty posturings which are inherently self-negating (i.e., if nothing matters, why then bother discussing it), you will enjoy what he has to say. He does not come to an answer concerning "truth," in my opinon, but takes the reader on an always interesting search for it.

29 people found this helpful

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Fibbo

I've found this to be an invaluable resource and a good introduction to post-modernism and epistemology

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2016

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What an enlightening read! Fernandez-Armesto writes very clearly and develops his argument lucidly. I've found this to be an invaluable resource and a good introduction to post-modernism and epistemology. It is certainly true that I gained a great deal from this text! Highly recommended (especially for those who seek the facts about truth)..

2 people found this helpful

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Joel Oscar Posner

This book is a gem

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2021

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I like this book because it is very well written and covers vast areas of history and culture in a relatively compact space. Very enjoable read.

One person found this helpful

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Marc Riese

Facing down doubt

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2011

Protogoras thought that man "is the measure of all things, of the existence of things that are and of the non-existence of things that are not." Socrates thought Protogoras was wrong, that there is more than the self, but he leaves us to prove it. The last three centuries have knocked The Truth off its pedestal and largely replaced it with Doubt, thanks to philosophical subjectivism (i.e., not being able to recognise the reality of objects beyond the self), scientific uncertainty, "numbing linguistics" and cultural relativism. This has led to a modern crisis. A character in a comic strip asks, "Hey God, what is Truth, eh?" "No idea," God replies, "get lost."

And lost we are. The modern "vandalism" of truth has it that objectivity is an illusion. As Professor Felipe Fernándes-Armesto writes in this 257-page "framework-essay", this crisis is most worrisome for historians. Cicero: "Who does not know that the first law of history is that the historian shall dare to tell nothing but the truth? And that its second is that he shall be bold to tell the truth in its entirety? And that there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his work?"

Fernándes-Armesto set himself the following substantial goals for this book: to write "about the quest for language that can match reality... to put our crisis in context; to reassure readers that the search for truth is still on and leave relativists and fundamentalists where they belong - on the margins of history." "We need a Guide for the perplexed - a way of understanding and identifying the truth in the post-modern era." Why? Because truth is the basis for social order, mutual respect, adherence to contracts, obedience to laws, and devolution of individual strength to the community.

In the first four chapters the author describes the four essential truth-finding techniques that mortals have always used: emotional truth (not based on reason or the senses); truth from authority and tradition ("consensus with the dead"); reason; and empirical/sensory truth. Chapter Five is a whirlwind tour of the modern history of doubt. The sixth and last chapter confronts the doubters and the doubt.

Fernándes-Armesto's book is well-informed, broad in scope, systematic, thoughtful and compelling. It is a mix of history and personal thoughts. The goals are practical and fundamental. I found that the book requires concentration and is best read in as short a time as possible in order to follow the history and the reasoning. The chapter on doubt is an engrossing survey of the "vandalism". In response to the many strong, almost undeniable arguments for doubt, "we can ululate in meaningless frustration ... that is the popular way out with writers of jargon, psychobabble, post-modern verbiage and academic gobbledegook. Or we can face our limitations, outface doubt and try to make a life for ourselves after it."

The concluding chapter takes up this task and is the most intriguing--the reader wonders to the last how it will end. After trashing a few contemporary would-be truth finding approaches, such as fundamentalism, the author begins to show his cards by indicating the merits of Jürgen Habermas' most recent search for truth as a "collective enterprise, in which we all learn from each other." This is "humane, undogmatic, solidly rooted in tradition, optimistic and, in effect, good for the individual who practices it and the society which benefits from it." Fernádes-Armesto then reviews the four essential truth-finding techniques (truth from emotion, tradition, reason and empiricism/senses). While truth from emotion was particularly helpful for early humans and still has some value, our emotions are easily fooled. Traditions have only a presumption of correctness in their favour, no guarantee. Reason and sense-perception survive the claws of doubt, but not wholly: "They are not perfect, but they are delightfully robust." Doubters of reason use reason to reason against reason. If I suspend reason and distrust senses and prefer a fantasy world, "I should be guided by petulance and perversity. No time and no society have ever made those their tests of truth... To discard them altogether is a terrible act of self-mutilation--a dimunition of humanity, as if amputation and lobotomy were simultaneously self-inflicted in rage at the errors of mind and sense."

The author then gives ground. "Relativists are right in this: truth telling techniques--and, it is probably safe to say, the concepts of truth which underlie them--do change from time to time, place to place and person to person. Subjectivists are also right in this: individuals have no guarantee in the authenticity of assertions--only the liberty to assent. We end up having to acknowledge that when we talk about anything we talk about the sense we have of it or the idea we have of it. Deconstructionists are right about the limitations of language... the gap between terms and the realities they are meant to refer to seems to stretch beyond our power to span it. All these points can be recommissioned on the side of truth. Although this book has shown that truth-telling changes and concepts of truth shift, the changes are fluctuations within limits, oscillations with a single system. They have a rhythm... like the changes of the seasons or the path of a pendulum. ... This is change of a sort but plus c'est la même chose. ... The truth-quest is always the same: the unwavering search for signs to match reality." Historians can approximate objectivity by using multiple perspectives over time. Even language "... is an almost physical thing, which cleaves the air with gestures, booms in the chest and belly, makes ganglions tremble and lips twitch." It is instinctive and connected to the physical world. He concludes: "Whenever we get the intimation of truth--whether we feel it, listen for it, sense it or think it out ourselves--we should expect it to talk to us and we should be able to try, if we like, to express it to others."

The justification for Fernándes-Armesto's "pendulum argument" is implied; the weaknesses of doubt arguments, as mentioned above, have appeared over time and indicate that the pendulum has already started to swing back towards certainty. The reader is left to decide whether this is so. One is compelled to agree with the sentiment that we can muddle along with the limited certainty that we have but that the "truth-quest" will not end.

6 people found this helpful

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John D Anderson

Good on history short on philosophy

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2003

The title of my review pretty much sums this one up. But to add a little detail to that. This book claims to be a history and a guide, but it's really just a history. It examines the methods by which humans have looked at the idea of truth, and the varying conclusions they have reached. You would think that the analysis of such varied views of truth would lead the author to think that absolute truth is a near impossible thing to find, but he comes from a very conservative angle thus viewing deconstructionism and postmodernism as wrong headed and ludicrous. It has very interesting historical analysis, but suffers from the very thing the author is trying to tear down-subjectivist thinking. If there is a philosophy of truth involved in this book it is never clearly outlined. He analyzes various ways in which people are arguing for the existence of absolute truth but doesn't really add anything to the debate, he may not have set out to do this, but that's what I was looking for and never found. He tries to attack various positions that would lend credibility to the subjectivist school of thought, but really only does so through name calling with little analysis. If you are interested in how people have historically viewed truth and can disentangle the authors critiques and opinions from the history, than you might like this, if not I would looke elsewhere.

2 people found this helpful

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John Henrikson

Best of Times

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2016

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Have you ever taken a stroll on a beautiful day with a perfect companion and emerged exhilarated? Read this book and you will have that experience.

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Jason R. McDiarmid (jasonmc@cqnet.com.au)

This book is one of the greatest history's of our world.

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 1999

Being the first book I have read by Fernandez-Armestro I cannot comment on it in relation to previous works, however, suffice to say that I was impressed not only by the literarily worthiness and depth of research but also by the courage to take on a topic of such obscurity. This `guide for the perplexed' is possibly one of the most probing books written this decade, no other book searches with such depth for truth itself. I thoroughly recommend this book to anybody with an interest in history, philosophy or ideology.

34 people found this helpful

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sarasubbiondo

never read!

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014

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I was required to read this book before entering a PhD program. I have never stumbled through a book that engaged me less, and left me wondering simply..." what the heck is the truth?"

While I know based on my degree and its heavy bend on Philosophy in the first year, that I should have found this quite interesting, instead is simply left me feeling that I may have mashed potatoes for brains.

One person found this helpful

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