Truth and Truthfulness
Written by Bernard Williams
Narrated by Ralph Cosham
5/5
()
About this audiobook
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.
Bernard Williams
Bernard Williams (1929-2003) was one of the most distinguished British philosophers of the twentieth century, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University, and Monroe Deutsch Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Related to Truth and Truthfulness
Related audiobooks
Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Philosophy and Real Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Passion for Ignorance: What We Choose Not to Know and Why Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vices of the Mind: From the Intellectual to the Political Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hume's Dialogues Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Non-Existence of the Real World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principia Ethica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Myths We Live By Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kant’s Foundations of Ethics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pragmatism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFoundations of Ethics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Citadels of Pride: Sexual Abuse, Accountability, and Reconciliation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pragmatism Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Open Society and Its Enemies: New One-Volume Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cynicism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Know-It-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kant and Modern Philosophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Function of Reason Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFree Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Understanding Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Philosophy For You
How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stoicism: How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/512 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson - Book Summary: An Antidote to Chaos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mastering Logical Fallacies: The Definitive Guide to Flawless Rhetoric and Bulletproof Logic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tao of Pooh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dao De Jing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School of Life: An Emotional Education Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The More of Less Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: The Laws of Human Nature: by Robert Greene: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Communicating Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life Is a 4-Letter Word: Laughing and Learning Through 40 Life Lessons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51900: Or; The Last President Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heretic's Handbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Truth and Truthfulness
7 ratings0 reviews