Customer Reviews

The Ways of knowing or The Methods of Philosophy

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This is "a philosophical inquiry as to the sources of human belief and the consequent criteria for determining its truth" rather than the title. Though published in 1925 it's relatively unaffected by time--except some updating per later scientific discoveries--its basic logic/arguments are IMHO still cogent. The 1st ½ of the book delineates 6 epistemological approaches: Authoritarianism, Mysticism, Rationalism, Empiricism, Pragmatism, & Skepticism, then twofold combinations of them, & finally an integrated whole. It then explores strengths and weaknesses of 3 orientations (Objectivism, Dualism, Subjectivism), integrating them to combine strengths & eliminate weaknesses to create a unified, optimal, 4th approach (Realism)--explicated via hypothetical discussions amongst proponents of each approach. Many of statements are quite profound & illuminating. Indeed, Montague has taken a rather deep, esoteric, difficult subject and (with few exception--e.g. the philosophical notation) rendered it both intelligible & interesting--at times fascinating, even read on a ship in the Aegean Sea!

I especially liked his balanced approach of eclectically retaining strengths vs. weaknesses of approaches, resulting in synthetic/integrative solutions. Having read Tibetan Buddhist texts on philosophy & mysticism, it was enlightening to find that Western philosophy had also discussed the major points of contention ("The theory of Subjectivism or Epistemological Idealism can be defined as the belief that objects, particularly material objects, cannot exist independently of a consciousness of them, & that therefore all reality consists exclusively of conscious being and its states" ~ Buddhist Mind-Only School). He takes a scientific/psychological view, interjecting empirical findings amongst the philosophical (rational) arguments. Topics include the nature of knowledge, consciousness, & reality; the relationship between inner perception vs. outer manifestation (e.g. "What we perceive as the sun at any moment is really not the sun as it is at the moment of perception, but the sun as it was 8 minutes ago...the sun's true position at any moment is 2 degrees west of its apparent position at the moment"); ancient vs. modern knowledge ("When our ancestors uttered the opinions which are now hoary with age & which we are asked to revere, they were as young in years as ourselves, and the world in which they lived was much younger in the matter of racial experience. Their opinions, however old they may be, express the childhood of the race, not its maturity....the age of an opinion is only an indication of the immaturity of the generation which expressed it. In all that makes for wisdom we are not younger but older than our ancestors"); the scientific induction-deduction spiral & Philosophy of Science ("There are certain very general and universal laws which are not restricted to any particular subject matter, but which hold good of all implicative relations between propositions" ~ General Systems Theory). I was delightfully surprised by the accessibility & value of this early 20th century book. It was well worth my time.