{"product_id":"the-ashtray-9780226922690","title":"The Ashtray","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A scrappy continuation of Morris's disagreement with Kuhn and an explanation of why he thinks Kuhn’s ideas, which bear a certain resemblance to Berkeley’s, are so pernicious.  . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Ashtray\u003c\/i\u003e strikes me as an unlikely source for reaching a better understanding of Kuhn.; Morris dislikes him too much and can’t be trusted not to stack the deck against him. He ignores, for example, the excellent arguments against Whiggishness as a form of propaganda used to justify the historical dominance of Westerners over the rest of the world. But the book is a \u003ci\u003emarvelous\u003c\/i\u003e tool for the better understanding of Errol Morris, who is both a great artist and a fascinating individual in his own right.”\u003cbr\u003e   -- Laura Miller * Slate *\u003cbr\u003e\"Oscar-winning filmmaker Morris was once a graduate student under philosopher Thomas Kuhn, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Structure of Scientific Revolution\u003c\/i\u003es, and this intimate analysis of flaws in that 1962 treatise is driven by Morris's smart, conversational tone. . . . Throughout the heady discussion, Kuhn's cantankerous personality is revealed: he once threw an ashtray at Morris, who is responding--albeit 45 years later--by lobbing this combative tome into the academic and practical world.\"\u003cbr\u003e   * Publishers Weekly, starred review *\u003cbr\u003e“The documentarian Errol Morris gives us \u003ci\u003eThe Ashtray\u003c\/i\u003e, a semi-autobiographical tale of the supremely influential\u003ci\u003e The Structure of Scientific Revolutions\u003c\/i\u003e by Thomas S. Kuhn. A spellbinding intellectual adventure into the limits, fragility, and infirmity of human reason. Morris’s tale is picaresque. Anecdotes, cameos, interviews, historical digressions, sly side notes, and striking illustrations hang off a central spine that recounts critical episodes in the history of analytic philosophy.”\u003cbr\u003e   * Boston Review *\u003cbr\u003e“What is it about philosophers? A more fissiparous bunch it would be hard to find: if they aren’t threatening each other with pokers, they are flinging ashtrays at each other’s heads. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Ashtray \u003c\/i\u003eis passionate, polemical and defiantly written in chatty, accessible language with copious amusing footnotes. Frequently scabrous, Morris acknowledges that it could be seen as a vendetta, and freely admits that it is, as he views Kuhn’s idea of the social construction of knowledge as pernicious and disturbing. As befits a man whose life has been dedicated to documentary films, Morris sets great store by the existence of an objective truth, and this book is his passionate defence of that truth. . . . I found this all rather enjoyable. If you want an opinionated, impolite page-turner picking a fight with half of the modern philosophy of science, this is definitely the book for you.”\u003cbr\u003e   * Fortean Times *\u003cbr\u003e\"Many readers will know Errol Morris for his superb films that have won an Academy Award and other high honors. He has given us a book of the same quality and importance. It is a sustained argument in defense of Truth and Reality. At the same time, it is the story of a life in passionate pursuit of these vital ideas, not as distant abstractions but as things that actually exist in the world and demand our respect. It is about time! In an era of false news in our media, pseudo facts in politics, and political correctness in academe, no cause is more urgent than the cause of Truth and Reality.\"\u003cbr\u003e   -- David Hackett Fischer, Brandeis University\u003cbr\u003e\"A compelling send-up of contemporary relativism about truth and epistemology by the distinguished film-maker and writer Errol Morris. He bases it on his own personal interactions with Thomas Kuhn, one of its most influential practitioners. But there is a little bit of everything in the book. Interviews with philosophers and scientists are intertwined with stories from many of my own favorite authors (Lewis Carroll, Russell, Borges), and discussions of notions such as reference, natural kind, paradigm, and incommensurability. Throughout we find, as we have come to expect from him, Morris's commitment to find out the truth. This time about truth itself.\" -- Saul Kripke\u003cbr\u003e\"A wonderful read, combining memoir, epistemological reflection, the ethnography of academic philosophy -and confession of faith. \u003ci\u003eThe Ashtray \u003c\/i\u003ewill provoke and stimulate any serious reader, but it will provide particular insights for anyone familiar with Morris's important films.\"\u003cbr\u003e   -- Charles E. Rosenberg, Harvard University\u003cbr\u003e\"Errol Morris is a remarkable documentary film maker. He pursues his craft in the conviction that there is truth to be found and that creative and determined efforts will uncover it. In this extraordinary book, Morris explores his animating philosophical commitments about truth, reality, and knowledge. He presents his outlook in sharp opposition to ideas about relativism and incommensurability that he associates with Thomas Kuhn’s profoundly influential \u003ci\u003eThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions\u003c\/i\u003e. Morris's book is entertaining and engaging, but above all else it offers us a compelling exploration of the value of truth.\" -- Joshua Cohen, Apple University\u003cbr\u003e\"This book is brilliant, thought-provoking, sometimes infuriating, and nearly always convincing. Everyone interested in the fate of truth and knowledge in these postmodern, alternative fact times should read it.\" -- David Wootton, author of Power, Pleasure, and Profit\u003cbr\u003e\"Is truth real or is it a matter of opinion? That is the question Errol Morris ponders in this fascinating book. His argument for the reality of truth is compelling, informative, and lively. And there's another powerful lesson in it that goes far beyond the seemingly abstract philosophical issues: We escape the bubble of relativism precisely when we reach out to other human beings, when we care about something more than the 'little me,' when we offer the world our love--as Morris has done with his inspiring films, and now with this book.\"\u003cbr\u003e   -- Edward Frenkel, University of California, Berkeley, author of Love and Math\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Preface\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1: The Ultimatum\u003cbr\u003e 2: Shifting Paradigms\u003cbr\u003e 3: A Parliament of Fears\u003cbr\u003e 4: Listen, Old Man, What in Hell’s Gone Wrong Here?\u003cbr\u003e 5: Revolutions, Real and Imagined\u003cbr\u003e 6: The Leap into the Dark\u003cbr\u003e 7: The Furniture of the World\u003cbr\u003e 8: Avatars of Progress\u003cbr\u003e 9: The Contest of Interpretation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e  Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Cast of Characters\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400152129879,"sku":"9780226922690","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226922690.jpg?v=1730469890","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-ashtray-9780226922690","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}