About the Book
Truth has always been a central preoccupation of philosophy in allits forms and traditions. Yet in the late twentieth century truth became suddenly rather unfashionable. The precedence given to assortedpolitical and ideological agendas, along with the rise of relativism, postmodernism and pseudoscience in academia, led to a decline both of truth as a serious subject, and an intellectual tradition thatbegan with the Enlightenment.
Why Truth Matters is a timely, incisive and entertaining look at how and why modern thought and culture lost sight of the importance of truth. It is also an eloquent and inspiring argument for restoring truth to its rightful place. Jeremy Stangroom and Ophelia Benson, editors of the successful butterfliesandwheels website—itself established to "fight fashionable nonsense"—identify and debunk such senselessness, and the spurious claims made for it, in all its forms. Their account ranges over religious fundamentalism, Holocaust denial, the challenges of postmodernism and deconstruction, the wilful misinterpretation of evolutionary biology, identity politics and wishful thinking.
Why Truth Matters is both a rallying cry for the enlightened vision and an essential read for anyone who's everbeen bored, frustrated, bewildered or plain enraged by the worst excesses of the fashionable intelligentsia.
Table of Contents:
1. The Antinomies of Truth
2. Truth, Doubt and the Philosophers
3. The Truth Radicals
4. The Social Construction of Truth
5. Politics, Ideology and Evolutionary Biology
6. Wishful Thinking and Epistemological Confusion
7. Institutions, Academe and Truth
8. Why Truth Matters
About the Author :
Jeremy Stangroom is the author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Riddle and its sequels. His writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Daily Telegraph, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. Ophelia Benson is editor of www.butterfliesandwheels.com, deputy editor of The Philosophers' Magazine and co-author, with Jeremy Stangroom, of Why Truth Matters. She is also a frequent contributor to Free Inquiry.
Review :
'Though its arguments are simple, straightforward and unpretentious, the book is still remarkably effective in retaining the interest of specialists. Although perhaps is even more successful for its care in not showing, at the same time, condescension towards lay readers. In so doing, it teaches by example.' ~ J. Elias Saidennunez, Lund University, Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, Vol 7 No. 3, Dec 2006
In this accessible text, the editors of the Butterfliesandwheels.com website critically examine the current trend of skepticism regarding the reality, meaning, possibility and importance of the truth. Calling for a return to the intellectual tradition of the Enlightenment, they expose the faulty thinking of everyone from religious fundamentalists and Holocaust deniers to relativist intellectuals and postmodernist academics. Reference & Research Book News, February 2007.
Reviewed on Classic FM's Classic Newsnight - 26 Sept 2007 'A clear, accessible and hugely important account of what it is to be rational. Popular philosophy at its best.'
"Benson and Stangroom, authors of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense (2004), hearken back to a decidedly unfashionable Enlightenment ideal of objective and scientifically verifiable truth battling the obscurantist forces of relativism, skepticism, faith, and identity politics. The authors are not academics, and their book is written for a lay audience, so although they do evaluate the arguments of some scholars (especially in a couple of chapters on the sociology of science), they as frequently turn to newspapers for contemporary examples of the disregard for truth (e.g., a tobacco company suppressing medical research damaging to its interests, a pro-Palestinian professor shouting down Jewish students). This element of social critique is the most interesting part of the book..." - C. S. Seymour, Wayland Baptist Univeristy- Choice, October 2006
Postmodernism is often billed as attacking truth and science. This is how it is presented in the valuable little book Why Truth Matters, by the editors of the sceptical website butterfliesandwheels.com, Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom. They mount a spirited counterattack, reminding us - in the way that Cambridge philosopher GE Moore was famous for doing - that if it comes to a battle for hearts and minds, basic convictions of common sense and science beat philosophical subtleties hands down. Where Brian King horrifies us with his liars, Benson and Stangroom reveal a parallel rogues' gallery of social constructivists, who look at how individuals and groups participate in the creation of their own perceived reality. These "rogues" include the feminist Sandra Harding and the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, but the doyen must surely be the French philosopher of science Bruno Latour. Latour's confusion of words and things led him to the precipice of denying that there could have been dinosaurs before the term was invented. Presumably a similar argument would show that nobody before Crick and Watson had DNA. Why Truth Matters is an excellent example of philosophy done well but also, and not coincidentally, made accessible and exciting. Truth matters, it tells us "not in a dull perfunctory dutiful sense, but in a real lived felt sense - ‘on the pulses' as Keats put it".
"...valuable little book..." - Simon Blackburn, Financial Times
"Why truth matters is an excellent example of philosophy done well but also, and not coincidentally, made accessible and exciting." ~ Simon Blackburn, Financial Times
'A sassy and profound response to [a] cascade of superstition and silliness ... Benson and Stangroom answer the clotted, barely readable sentences of the postmodernists with sentences so clear you could swim in them. There should be a law demanding every purchase of a Jacques Derrida "book" be accompanied with a free copy of this shimmering, glimmering answer.'
"The writing is superbly engaging, and each chapter is well argued. But the book's strong point is its reasonable and concise overview of the major arguments and viewpoints directly and indirectly limiting the precedence of truth. This overview allows readers to grasp easily not only each argument but also the subtle patterns into which the arguments connect. Though easy to follow, the text does assume a fair amount of prior reading. Recommended for academic collections and larger public systems with suitable demand."
Book review in The Guardian, Steven Poole's Non-fiction Choice
'Benson and Stangroom effectively uncover the way academic institutions and cultures can generate pressures to create more and more elaborate "Theory".'
