By making fallibilism's own expression part of fallibilism's own problem, this open access book explores the ways in which the negative aspects of our experience—such as error or doubt—can be "as sweet as" or even "sweeter than" knowledge, as Dante suggests in the Divine Comedy. It does so, primarily by addressing the need to view ourselves from a universal standpoint outside, which is also always a particular position from within, and by translating this contradictory condition into a strong fallibilist framework. In this framework, not only do we make mistakes, as is usually acknowledged, but we must also make mistakes in order to know.
This immanent epistemology leads to a peculiar hermeneutics that, rooted in historicity, combines the vehicles of both formal and dialectical logic. Taking this approach also in concrete, practical terms, the book constructs a broad exegetical arc from Hegel's phenomenology (with its appeal to mistrust), through Nietzsche's perspectivism and Peirce's scientific method to Wittgenstein’s relational analysis of truth. United in their rejection of Descartes’ absolute notion of truth and certainty, these approaches all conceive of knowledge as "more than" it supposedly is. This is what "sweeter than knowledge" can mean as well: experience in all its forms and flavors, from science to religion to art. This volume will appeal to academic philosophers and students interested in pragmatism, the philosophy of language and logic, and German idealism.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION.- PART I: FOUR POSTERS.- Chapter 2. Talking Is Lying (Nietzsche’s Poster).- Chapter 3. But in This Lying, We Are More Truthful (Hegel’s Poster).- Chapter 4. That’s Why We Shouldn’t Talk About It (Wittgenstein’s Poster).- Chapter 5. And If We Do, Then Only with Our Sister (Kleist’s Poster).- PART II: CAUTIOUS CERTAINTY.- Chapter 6. In the Eye of the Beholder.- Chapter 7. The Fear of Error.- Chapter 8. Man’s Glassy Essence.- Chapter 9. Golgotha of the Spirit.- PART III: CONSTITUTIVE EXCEPTION.- Chapter 10. The Logic of Identity.- Chapter 11. The Logic of Negativity.- Chapter 12. The Logic of Universality.- Chapter 13. You Are an Exception.- Chapter 14. SWEET, SWEETER, AND SWEETEST (CONCLUSION).
About the Author :
Vojtěch Kolman is a full professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague. His research primarily focuses on topics related to the philosophy of mathematics, pragmatism, and the philosophy of art. He is the author of the book Zahlen (de Gruyter) and of numerous articles that have appeared in international journals (Synthese, Erkenntnis, Hegel-Bulletin, Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie, etc.) and academic volumes (published by Routledge, Springer, Meiner, de Gruyter, etc.)
