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E-book
Author Ben-Menahem, Yemima, 1946-

Title Conventionalism / Yemima Ben-Menahem
Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006

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Description 1 online resource (x, 330 pages) : illustrations
Contents Overview : the varieties of conventionalism -- Origins : Poincaré and Duhem on convention -- Relativity : from "experience and geometry" to "geometry and experience" -- Implicit definition -- "Unlimited possibilities" : Carnap on convention -- Metaphor and argument : Quine on convention -- Wittgenstein : from conventionalism to iconoclasm
Summary "The daring idea that convention - human decision - lies at the root of so-called necessary truths, on the one hand, and much of empirical science, on the other, reverberates through twentieth-century philosophy, constituting a revolution comparable to Kant's Copernican revolution. Conventionalism is the first comprehensive study of this radical turn. One of the conclusions it reaches is that the term 'truth by convention', widely held to epitomize conventionalism, reflects a misunderstanding that has led to the association of conventionalism with relativism and postmodernism. Conventionalism, this book argues, did not contend that truths can be stipulated, but rather, that stipulations are often confused with truths. Their efforts were thus directed toward disentangling truth and convention, not reducing truth to convention."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-320) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Convention (Philosophy) -- History
PHILOSOPHY -- History & Surveys -- General.
PHILOSOPHY -- Movements -- Deconstruction.
Convention (Philosophy)
Wahrheit
Konvention
Erkenntnistheorie
Konventionalismus
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780511281945
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