Pragmatist Truth in the Post-Truth Age
Sincerity, Normativity, and Humanism

Engages in a self-critical examination of the pragmatist conception of truth integrating ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion.

Sami Pihlström (Author)

9781316517703, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 September 2021

260 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'Recommended.' J. R. Shook, Choice Connect

It is commonly believed that populist politics and social media pose a serious threat to our concept of truth. Philosophical pragmatists, who are typically thought to regard truth as merely that which is 'helpful' for us to believe, are sometimes blamed for providing the theoretical basis for the phenomenon of 'post-truth'. In this book, Sami Pihlström develops a pragmatist account of truth and truth-seeking based on the ideas of William James, and defends a thoroughly pragmatist view of humanism which gives space for a sincere search for truth. By elaborating on James's pragmatism and the 'will to believe' strategy in the philosophy of religion, Pihlström argues for a Kantian-inspired transcendental articulation of pragmatism that recognizes irreducible normativity as a constitutive feature of our practices of pursuing the truth. James himself thereby emerges as a deeply Kantian thinker.

Introduction
1. James's children? The pragmatist conception of truth and the slippery slope to 'Post-Truth'
2. Religious truth and pluralism from a pragmatist point of view
3. Around or through Kant? Kantian transcendental pessimism and Jamesian empirical meliorism
4. The will to believe and holistic pragmatism
5. How is normativity possible? A holistic-pragmatist perspective
6. Pragmatic agnosticism – meaning, truth, and suffering
Conclusion. Pragmatic transcendental humanism
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], History of Western philosophy [HPC]