True Enough
eBook - ePub

True Enough

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

True Enough

About this book

Philosophy valorizes truth, holding that there can never be epistemically good reasons to accept a known falsehood, or to accept modes of justification that are not truth conducive. How can this stance account for the epistemic standing of science, which unabashedly relies on models, idealizations, and thought experiments that are known not to be true? In True Enough, Catherine Elgin argues that we should not assume that the inaccuracy of models and idealizations constitutes an inadequacy. To the contrary, their divergence from truth or representational accuracy fosters their epistemic functioning. When effective, models and idealizations are, Elgin contends, felicitous falsehoods that exemplify features of the phenomena they bear on. Because works of art deploy the same sorts of felicitous falsehoods, she argues, they also advance understanding.

Elgin develops a holistic epistemology that focuses on the understanding of broad ranges of phenomena rather than knowledge of individual facts. Epistemic acceptability, she maintains, is a matter not of truth-conduciveness, but of what would be reflectively endorsed by the members of an idealized epistemic community—a quasi-Kantian realm of epistemic ends.

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Yes, you can access True Enough by Catherine Z. Elgin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Aesthetics in Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1. Reconfiguring the Realm
  8. 2. Distancing from Truth
  9. 3. From Knowledge to Understanding
  10. 4. The Fabric of Understanding
  11. 5. Epistemic Normativity
  12. 6. Intellectual Integrity
  13. 7. Objectivity: A Bulwark against Bias
  14. 8. Irreconcilable Differences
  15. 9. Exemplification in Understanding
  16. 10. Embodied Understanding
  17. 11. Casting in Bold Relief
  18. 12. Chekhov’s Gun
  19. 13. Borders and Crossings
  20. 14. Fallibility’s Payoff
  21. References
  22. Index