Variations On Truth

Bringing together leading scholars from across the world, this is a comprehensive survey of the latest phenomenological research into the perennial philosophical problem of 'truth'. Starting with an historical introduction chronicling the variations on truth at play in the Phenomenological tradition, the book explores how Husserl's methodology equips us with the tools to thoroughly explore notions of truth, reality and knowledge. From these foundations, the book goes on to explore and extend the range of approaches that contemporary phenomenological research opens up in the face of the most profound ontological and epistemological questions raised by the tradition. In the final section, the authors go further still and explore how phenomenology relates to other variations on truth offered up by hermeneutic, deconstructive and narrative approaches. Across the 12 essays collected in this volume, Variations on Truth explores and maps a comprehensive and rigorous alternative to mainstream analytic discussions of truth, reality and understanding.

This book explores the geographical dimensions and implications of the post-truth era. Opening with a defense of the Enlightenment and the continued significance of science, objectivity, and truth, it then provides three key perspectives on the concept: The first is a philosophical analysis of post-truth. Social theory in various forms has sutured knowledge and power, in the process relativizing the nature of truth. This process reaches its apogee under post-modernism, which questions the very nature of truth itself. The second is the examination of the historical origins and development of the post-truth world. While post-truth has a history that can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries, more recently it has growth prolifically through the use of social media. The book examines post-truth as it appears in the yellow journalism of the Hearst newspapers, Holocaust denial, and contemporary attacks on science itself (e.g., the anti-vaccine movement, denial of evolution). Post-truth becomes a central issue in Western politics following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, who uses it frequently to advance a reactionary political agenda. Russian hackers weaponize it to interfere in the politics of Europe and the U.S. Fox News and other right-wing outlets also play a central role. One result is the proliferation of unfounded conspiracy theories such as QAnon. Today, autocrats and dictators the world over use fake news to maintain their power. Finally, this book links the rise of a post-truth society to the dynamics of contemporary economic geography. Knowledge-intensive capitalism has greatly elevated the significance of symbolic workers or the creative class. Geographically, contemporary capitalism has accentuated the agglomeration of producer services in large urban areas in which such workers labor. Conversely, rural areas and small towns have largely become repositories of the undereducated, and thus are more susceptible to fake news.

From one of the world's leading experts in business storytelling, and for readers of Daniel Levitin, Nate Silver, and Charles Duhigg, Truth: A User's Guide is about the different types of competing truths we face every day in life: how to identify them, why they work, when they are used and misused, and what we can do to guard against them or--when appropriate--to make constructive use of them. We tend to see the world like Orwell's Winston Smith: "There was truth and there was untruth." Yet the world is far more complicated than that. In a time of "post-truth", when "fake news" is itself the subject of our headlines, it is not "untruths" that we need to worry about. Hector Macdonald reveals and examines one of our greatest collective blind spots: we are all routinely misled by the truth. This is because for any fact, scenario, story, and situation, there are what Hector terms "Competing Truths." Why do Competing Truths matter? They matter because we vote, shop, work, co-operate, and fight based on what we believe to be true, and what we believe depends in large part on what we read or hear from others. Many of the most sophisticated and influential forms of political, business, and media communication manipulate technically true statements to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Truth is not an absolute--it has its own spectrum. Truth: A User's Guide shows us how to cut through the nebulous issue of truth using a scaffold of timely examples. These examples range from the disingenuous use of statistics in Donald Trump's speeches to the 2013 fallacy that Western quinoa demand was disadvantaging native Andean farmers, to the structure, ethics, and success of Uber. Macdonald is as comfortable and insightful parsing the influence of Facebook as he is examining Colgate's misleading campaign as the toothpaste recommended by dentists. Truth: A User's Guide explores how we can guard against the noise of competing truths, in business, in our personal relationships, and within ourselves, but also how we can use them to our advantage. Written with authority and humour, this is an accessible and illuminating narrative that will find a wide audience among readers in search of understanding why the meaning of "truth" seems to have gone completely haywire.

God speaks to us through the Bible. That Book embodies His words. Creation itself is the visible embodiment of His power and wisdom. It is the result of His words. This Book of His is, in a different way, the effect of His speaking. It is His written wisdom and power. There is His voice to us. The thunder and tempest are His loud voice of grandeur. The sunshine and the gentle breeze are His still small voice. But deeper, clearer, keener, softer, and still more penetrating than all of these is His written Word to us. The Bible is what it is because it contains the words of God. It is through the Word, and in connection with it, that God communicates with us. The Word revives: Your word has revived me (Psalm 119:50). The word produces faith: Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:17). The Word strengthens, comforts, heals, nourishes, and revives. It gets into contact with each part of our souls and works its own work there. And it does this because it is divine. No human words could be trusted to work the work in a human soul so unrestrictedly. It is not eloquence, poetry, nor argument, but something more than all these together. It is something peculiar and indescribable, which man could not have formed and which he cannot understand, that makes it so suitable for the soul of a foolish and sinful man.

Playing a key role in our lives, as a vehicle for our thoughts and a powerful medium of communication, language is at the centre of philosophical investigation. The fifteen specially commissioned essays in this book introduce and explore the ideas of major philosophers who have shaped philosophical thinking about language, providing insights into crucial developments in this fascinating field over the last 140 years. Chapters examine the work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Austin, Quine, Chomsky, Grice, Davidson, Dummett, Kripke and Derrida. This second edition broadens coverage of the area with new chapters on Susan Stebbing and on recent developments in feminist philosophy of language. Featuring contributions from Arif Ahmed, Kent Bach, Thomas Baldwin, Michael Beaney, Siobhan Chapman, Kirk Ludwig and other leading experts in the field, Philosophy of Language: The Key Thinkers provides a thorough introduction to the puzzles, debates and ideas that animate contemporary philosophy of language. It is an ideal resource for undergraduate students in philosophy, linguistics and related disciplines.

How does one’s upbringing determine one’s ethical and religious views? Are humans unique in this universe? Is God dead as Nietzsche declared? Is there any truth beyond scientific facts? How different religions relate to one another? What are the truth and falsehoods in various religions? Are communism and nihilism more in sync with reality than religion? How should’ we prioritise between self-interest and sacrifice? What should be our individual role to seek global peace? Is there a higher purpose in life than just living? The author—a scientist, scholar, innovator, entrepreneur and philanthropist—discusses these questions in a well-argued treatise, sprinkled with memorable episodes and anecdotes.

What is truth? This fascinating spectrum of studies into the various rationalities of our human dealings with life - psychological, aesthetic, economic, spiritual - reveals their joints and calls for a new approach to truth. Putting both classical and contemporary conceptions aside, we find the primogenital ground of truth in the networks of correspondences, adequations, relevancies, and rationales at work in life's becoming. Does this plurivocal differentiation mean that the status of truth is relative? On the contrary, submits Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, given the universal significance of the crucial instrument of the logos of life, "truth is the vortex of life's ontopoietic unfolding".

If a Muslim came to a Christian, and asked him to explain his belief in Jesus Christ how would a Christian respond? If an Imam asked a Christian Pastor to bring evidence of the Gospels authority would a Pastor welcome the opportunity? And if any Muslim would ask a Christian to judge between their respective beliefs would a Christian know how to do it? These questions presupposed an occurrence that most Christians will never encounter because most Muslims do not ask. Yet, the Quran has been asking these exact same questions of us for the last thirteen hundred years! Should we ignore the Quran for another Millennia? It is time to answer. On a visit to my local mosque, I asked the Imam if I could pray with him. Before I started to pray the Imam quickly interjected. You are not going to pray to Mary, are you? That there are those who pray to Mary (and worship her) is maybe understandable but it is not Biblical! Christians are told in the Quran to desist using the term Trinity. But the word Trinity is not found in the Bible. I believe, as Abraham believed, that there is a God that can be seen and a God that we do not see BUT they are one and the same! Allah is not a name, but the Arabic word for God, even Christians in the Middle East use the word! Al-Maidah 47 Let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it. Isaiah 43:10 You are my witness, declares the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Here we hopefully put right many misconceptions and bring what God has revealed.