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» Second-hand books
Truth and Truthfulness
by Bernard Williams
What does it mean to be truthful? What role does truth play in our lives? What do we lose if we reject truthfulness? No philosopher is better suited to answer these questions than Bernard Williams. Writing with his characteristic combination of passion and elegant simplicity, he explores the value of truth and finds it to be both less and more than we might imagine. Modern culture exhibits two attitudes toward truth: suspicion of being deceived (no one wants to be fooled) and skepticism that objective truth exists at all (no one wants to be naive). This tension between a demand for truthfulness and the doubt that there is any truth to be found is not an abstract paradox. It has political consequences and signals a danger that our intellectual activities, particularly in the humanities, may tear themselves to pieces. Williams's approach, in the tradition of Nietzsche's genealogy, blends philosophy, history, and a fictional account of how the human concern with truth might have arisen. Without denying that we should worry about the contingency of much that we take for granted, he defends truth as an intellectual objective and a cultural value. He identifies two basic virtues of truth, Accuracy and Sincerity, the first of which aims at finding out the truth and the second at telling it. He describes different psychological and social forms that these virtues have taken and asks what ideas can make best sense of them today. Truth and Truthfulness presents a powerful challenge to the fashionable belief that truth has no value, but equally to the traditional faith that its value guarantees itself. Bernard Williams shows us that when we lose a sense of the value of truth, we lose a lot both politically and personally, and may well lose everything.
25 Used & Rare copies available from £11.89
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- O'Donoghue Books
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- £11.89
344pp.
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- O'Donoghue Books
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- £11.89
344pp.
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- JEANCOBOOKS
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- £12.19
0691102767 FORMER LIBRARY HARDCOVER BOOK IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. IT HAS THE USUAL LIBRARY MARKINGS, OTHERWISE, LIKE NEW.
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- Jeffrey Wasilewski
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- £12.91
0691117918 Good condition, minor cover wear, some notations, EVERY order receives DELIVERY CONFIRMATION----FAST shipping! !
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- books_online
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- £13.09
Williams examines the modern tension between valuing and demanding truthfulness vs. doubting that there is truth or regarding it as relative or subjective. His philosophical analysis, which includes both real history and fictional "state of nature" narrative, aims at specifying basic human needs, powers, and limitations so as to account for truthfulness and its value. He regards accuracy and sincerity as the two basic virtues of truth and therefore discusses their relationships to belief, education, authenticity, historical truth, political liberalism (liberty and distributive justice), etc., and also analyzes trustworthiness and deceit in terms of Gricean conversational implicatures. Williams also has some strictures against Rortian pragmatism. Regrettably, his seven-page endnote chapter is sprinkled with untranslated ancient Greek. Otherwise, the book is a model of clarity and discernment.
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- Prairie Archives
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- £13.52
Bar code sticker on back jacket.
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- Allen's Bookshop
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- £14.14
328 pp. Maroon cloth cover, some light pencil underlining, previous owners name blackened out on front fly leaf otherwise very good condition.
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- Allen's Bookshop
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328 pp. Maroon cloth cover, some light pencil underlining, previous owners name blackened out on front fly leaf otherwise very good condition.
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- AwesomeBooksUSA
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- £15.26
Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response.
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- Knowledge N' More
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- £15.37
0691102767 BRAND NEW-WE SHIP THE SAME DAY.
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- Emile Kerssemakers
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- £16.29
Orig. cloth, gilt. With dustjacket. xii, 328 pp.; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references pp. 309-320 and index. Text in English. -(spine d.j. sl. folded, previous owner's name at top of title page) Otherwise as new.
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- Quartermelon
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234 by 155 mm.
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- Dim and Distant
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CLOTH HARDBACK, in a lightly rubbed and bumped dust jacket. Clean and tight with minor wear. Over twenty years selling secondhand books.
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- Paperbackshop
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Explores the value of truth and finds it to be both less and more than we might imagine. This book identifies two basic virtues of truth, accuracy and sincerity. It describes different psychological and social forms that these virtues have taken and a...
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- Book Culture Inc.
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- £20.30
Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 344 p.
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- Alibris
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- £20.46
Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 344 p.
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