Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction, and Critical Theory (Paperback)

by Christopher Norris (Author)
Key Phrases: plenist ontology, dephlogistated air, strong sociological approach, New York, University of Chicago Press, Clarendon Press (more...)

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

Product Description
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 (November 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631198652
• ISBN-13: 978-0631198659
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,520,172 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	B. Rossen "Equitus" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

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.