Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory [Paperback]

Christopher Norris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631198652 | ISBN-13: 978-0631198659 | Publication Date: November 10, 1997 | Edition: 1

This book offers a vigorous and constructive challenge to relativism by examining a wide range of anti-realist theories, and in response offering a variety of arguments amounting to a strong defence of critical realism in the natural and social sciences.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With his characteristic energy and scruple, Christopher Norris has mounted an unusually wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary attack on a family of doctrines - all prominent forms of cultural relativism - tethered to the singular claim that truth is constructed and, therefore is whatever we make of it. Securing that lone thread, Norris weaves before our eyes a tapestry of rogue theories that include anti-realism, social constructionism, the 'strong programme', neopragmatism, relativism, scepticism, Kuhnian and Foucaudlian fashions, and more." Joseph Margolis, Temple University

"This author provides a great service to modern and postmodern philosphers of science who are held at somewhat of a distance by the writing styles of their counterparts...Norris' survey is extensive...it is wonderful at bringing out how postmodern discussions of language and ontology can be sewn into the fabric of arguments grounded in the assumptions of the Received View." J.F.Metcalfe, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, Vol.39, No.3

From the Back Cover

This book offers a vigorous and constructive challenge to the various forms of anti-realist and cultural-relativist thinking. By examining a wide range of anti-realist theories, the author is able to highlight the problems, including the ethical dilemmas, to which they give rise, and in response offer a variety of arguments amounting to a strong defence of critical realism in the natural and social sciences. These arguments are drawn from a wide range of sources such as theoretical physics, philosophical semantics, deconstruction and critical theory. This book will thus be of interest to both students and scholars in the fields of critical theory, philosophy and history of science, and epistemology, demonstrating as it does the incoherence of anti-realist doctrines.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (November 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631198652
• ISBN-13: 978-0631198659
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,073,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deconstructionist deconstruction, March 3, 2001

By 

Benjamin Rossen "Benjamin" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory (Hardcover)

Christopher Norris, once called "a prominent second rung deconstructionist..." by Roger Kimball, is nevertheless, among writers allied to the postmodern movement, more critical than most. This book is not an easy read for the author has the habit of alluding to rather than explaining the views he argues for and against. Norris has mastered a large corpus of postmodern work, genuinely striving to find something of value in it. He detects traces of critical analytical thought behind the smoke screens of obscurantism in the writings of Derrida, for example, and balances his arguments by emphasizing these. He argues that postmodern writers have encountered the same philosophical problems grappled by philosophers throughout history; it is the method, language and conclusions of postmodernists which set them apart; which, one is forced to conclude, does not leave much of value.

Unfortunately Professor Norris has absorbed a great deal of the language-salad jargon of postmodernism and generously attached to that terminology respectable philosophical notions which might not be shared by many. He uses phrases such as "linguistic tropes" and "genealogies of ideas" along side "synthetic/analytic distinction" and "empirical methodology", as if they were expressions of equally valid philosophical notions. The term "suasive" is used when "persuasive" would have done just fine. This kind of thing, and the book is peppered with it, makes reading "Against Relativism" heavy going. It is worth the effort, however, for the encompassing analysis Christopher Norris provides and for the insights it gives into the shreds of meaning that can be wrung from some postmodern work.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relativism, September 20, 2010

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james buckley - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory (Paperback)

Am extremely grateful for the time the author put into making this an outstanding book. A book of substance that engages the reader, towards a proactive paradigm evaluation of their own interaction with their own thinking involving how much society determines how we (Christians) perceive life and Holy Scripture and how followers of Jesus can make that decisive change brought on by having an introspective life style change in thought and external interaction in society.