On Truth and Meaning: Language, Logic and the Grounds of Belief (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers S.) - Hardcover

'...Norris engages in a series of closely argues, though not overly technical, reflections on the debate between various aspects of epistemological realism and anti-realism.' Mark Vernon, TLS--Sanford Lakoff "Tls " "Norris continues the complex bridge-building project of his four previous books ("Hillary Putnam, " CH, Mar'03, 40-3942; "Against Relativism", CH, Apr'98, 35-4452; "Reclaiming Truth", CH, May'97, 34-5019; and "Truth and the Ethnic of Criticism", May'95, 32-5013) to defend a "normatively adequate" realist account of knowledge, rational explanation, and reference. Chapter 1 reviews debates over psychologism from Frege to Quine and Dummett, then offers an alternative, normatively adequate naturalized epistemology inspired by Philip Kitcher. Chapter 2 continues a similar line of realist argument in light of debates by Quine, Davidson, and Mcdowell over the "three dogmas" of empiricism. Chapters 3 and 4 develop Norris's position with particular reference to scientific knowledge and natural-language interpretation. Chapter 5 turns to Continental thinkers from Sartre to Derrida for overlooked insights on how to understand the question of doxastic responsibility. Finally, in chapter 6 Norris brings his realist arguments to bear against Kripke's reading of Wittgenstein on following a rule and its resultant communitarian account of knowledge. This chapter includes discussions of replies to Kripke by Wright Tennant, and McDowell. Though not a book for beginners, this study, with its impressive scope, will help greatly advanced students and scholars interested in the variety of so-called analytic and Continental traditions".""--Sanford Lakoff

As one of the world's leading and most highly-acclaimed contemporary theorists, Christopher Norris has spent much of the last twenty years trying to promote better relations and mutual understanding between the divisive analytic and continental philosophical traditions. In his new book, "On Truth and Meaning", Norris examines key issues in the philosophy of logic, mind and language those that have defined the agenda of current debate in analytic philosophy. Among the book's central themes are a number of much-rehearsed, but as yet unresolved questions that have preoccupied many leading analytic philosophers. In a fresh and provocative examination of recent debates, Norris shows certain features of the analytic enterprise in a sharp and revealing light, and proposes that those who approach such debates from an analytic viewpoint might profit by reflecting on the challenge posed to their accustomed modes of thought by certain distinctly 'continental' themes. Arguing that, contra to the orthodox view, philosophers in the continental line of descent, from Husserl to Derrida, have long engaged with the same sorts of issues that preoccupy their analytic counterparts, Norris explores both traditions alongside one another in order to point up certain contrasts or communities of interest. In this timely and provocative book, Norris proposes grounds for a new era of cooperation and mutual interrogative exchange between the two schools of thought in a narrative that will engage and influence those from both philosophical camps.