Forms of Truth and the Unity of Knowledge

by Vittorio Hösle (Editor)

Overview

Forms of Truth and the Unity of Knowledge addresses a philosophical subject—the nature of truth and knowledge—but treats it in a way that draws on insights beyond the usual confines of modern philosophy. This ambitious collection includes contributions from established scholars in philosophy, theology, mathematics, chemistry, biology, psychology, literary criticism, history, and architecture. It represents an attempt to integrate the insights of these disciplines and to help them probe their own basic presuppositions and methods.

The essays in Forms of Truth and the Unity of Knowledge are collected into five parts, the first dealing with division of knowledge into multiple disciplines in Western intellectual history; the second with the foundational disciplines of epistemology, logic, and mathematics; the third with explanation in the natural sciences; the fourth with truth and understanding in disciplines of the humanities; and the fifth with art and theology.

Contributors: Vittorio Hösle, Keith Lehrer, Robert Hanna, Laurent Lafforgue, Thomas Nowak, Francisco J. Ayala, Zygmunt Pizlo, Osborne Wiggins, Allan Gibbard, Carsten Dutt, Aviezer Tucker, Nicola Di Cosmo, Michael Lykoudis, and Celia Deane-Drummond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268031114
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	10/15/2014
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Vittorio Hösle is Paul G. Kimball Chair of Arts and Letters in the Department of German Languages and Literatures and concurrent professor of philosophy and political science at the University of Notre Dame. He was founding director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Many Faces of Beauty (2013), The Philosophical Dialogue: A Poetics and a Hermeneutics (2012), and Morals and Politics (2004), all published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction Vittorio Hösle 1

Part I The Historical Development of the Tree of Knowledge

Chapter 1 How Did the Western Culture Subdivide Its Various Forms of Knowledge and Justify Them? Historical Reflections on the Metamorphoses of the Tree of Knowledge Vittorio Hösle 29

Part II Epistemology, Logic, and Mathematics

Chapter 2 Intuition and Coherence in the Keystone Loop Keith Lehrer 73

Chapter 3 What Is the Nature of Inference? Robert Hanna 89

Chapter 4 Speculation and Narration in Mathematics Laurent Lafforgue 102

Part III Explanation in the Natural Sciences

Chapter 5 A Molecular Glimpse of How Mother Nature Can Regulate Our Being Thomas Novak 115

Chapter 6 What Light Does Biology Shed on the Social Sciences and the Humanities? Francisco J. Ayala 140

Chapter 7 What Is the Nature of Perception? Zygmunt Pizlo 159

Part IV Introspection and Understanding in the Humanities

Chapter 8 Is Introspection (a First-Person Perspective) Indispensable in Psychology? Osborne Wiggins 181

Chapter 9 Could Normative Insights Be Sources of Normative Knowledge? Allan Gibbard 195

Chapter 10 Truth and Knowledge in Literary Interpretation Carsten Dutt 216

Chapter 11 Historical Truth Aviezer Tucker 232

Chapter 12 Truth and Unity in Chinese Traditional Historiography Nicola Di Cosmo 260

Part V Art and Religion

Chapter 13 The Architecture School within the University Michael Lykoudis 289

Chapter 14 How Is Theology Inspired by the Sciences? Celia Deane-Drummond 300

About the Contributors 324

Index 332

Editorial Reviews

This outstanding collection brings together first-rate scholars, hailing from disciplines as varied as mathematics, biology, chemistry, architecture, literary studies, engineering, and theology, and invites them to reflect on the specific truth experience of their branch of knowledge. By doing justice to the diversity of this experience and at the same time to the unity of the quest for truth, this volume stupendously renews the classical idea of the unity of knowledge, indeed the beautiful metaphor of the tree of knowledge. —Jean Grondin, University of Montreal

Jean Grondin

"This outstanding collection brings together first-rate scholars, hailing from disciplines as varied as mathematics, biology, chemistry, architecture, literary studies, engineering, and theology, and invites them to reflect on the specific truth experience of their branch of knowledge. By doing justice to the diversity of this experience and at the same time to the unity of the quest for truth, this volume stupendously renews the classical idea of the unity of knowledge, indeed the beautiful metaphor of the tree of knowledge." —Jean Grondin, University of Montreal

"Each of the essays is high-quality in its own right and can serve as a springboard for other specialists." — Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

"This thought provoking volume addresses problems in contemporary academia and serves as a springboard for specialists to begin having interdisciplinary conversations with those outside their own disciplines. It advances the cause of restoring the rightful place of public intellectuals, one discipline at a time.” —Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

From the Publisher