Description
Book SynopsisAims to resolve three connected problems central to philosophical thought. This book argues that while this kind of contradiction is inescapable, it is so thoroughgoing that, like the Liar's Paradox, it cancels its own meaning.
Trade Review"Sometimes Always Never is an exceptionally well-written and clear argument about why logical contradictions can be both permissible and unavoidable, and about how experiencing such a contradiction can help us simultaneously reaffirm the rightness of our beliefs while also recognizing that there may be other beliefs with an equally good claim to being right. Barris persuasively argues that this is neither nonsense nor merely playing with words, and shows how this experience of recognizing the relative correctness of one's views is both very common and extremely important." -- -Matthew Moore Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo "Jeremy Barris analyzes the philosophical paradoxes of commitment and belief with a view to extracting their general structure and offering real ideas about how to live with them, as we must in order to live together successfully in contemporary societies. This is a topical and timely analysis that moves beyond considering the philosophical problems of pluralism and relativism in the abstract to show how we might begin to deal with them here and now." -- -Paul Livingston University of New Mexico "A remarkably ambitious, challenging and thoroughly engaging book. Barris's mastery of a great variety of writings, including literary texts, takes the reader on a fascinating journey through metaphysics, humor, dreams, politics and epistemology. Although he deals with these themes on the highest level, the read never turns into a rough ride. Arguing with stunning clarity, Barris stays solidly at the wheel and brings his readers along in a fearless and cogent narrative, rife with innovative and original thought." -- -Irene Klaver University of North Texas "Students of philosophy and its history have long wondered how any useful knowledge can be obtained in a field where there is little but disagreement and discord. Jeremy Barris's Sometimes Always True proposes a novel, insightful, and widely informed response to this conundrum." -- -Nicholas Rescher University of Pittsburgh
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction: Sometimes Always True 1 1. Comparing Different Cultural or Theoretical Frameworks: Davidson, Rorty, and the Nature of Truth 2. An Internal Connection between Logic and Rhetoric between Frameworks, and a Legitimate Foundation for Knowledge 3. Pluralism, Legitimate Self-Contradiction, and a Proposed Solution to Some Shared Fundamental Problems of Political and Mainstream Epistemology 4. The Logic of Genuine Political Pluralism and Oscar Wilde's Artificiality of Wit and Style 5. Foucault's Pluralism and the Possibility of Truth and of Ideology Critique 6. How to Be Properly Unnatural: The Metaphysics of Heterosexual Normativity and the Importance of the Concepts of Essence and Nature for Pluralism 7. The Necessary Inconclusiveness of Heideggerian Interpretation of Metaphysics and the Undecided Nature of Essential or Logical Connection 8. The Formal Structure of Metaphysics and The Importance of Being Earnest 9. The Logical Structure of Dreams and Their Relation to Reality Coda: Overviews References Index
