Truth and Truthfulness : An Essay in Genealogy

Rating:
Summary: An important work
Review: I found Williams' treatment of truth to be an important contribution. I thought well enough of it that I'm coming our of retirement to do a graduate course on the book in the Fall. Non-philosophers will find it tough going, but well worth the effort. I think this is an important book and everyone I've recommended it to has agreed with that judgment.

Rating:
Summary: Enough Anti-Rorty Polemics
Review: Richard Rorty is set up as the strawman in this book and this is unfortunate. Apart from this the book is an interesting read that Rorty would have little problem with. Indeed this is the case (see Rorty's review of the book).

I think Williams in this book is saying much the same thing as Dan Dennett and is on the same critical wave length with Dan in his criticism's of Rorty. Which seem to me to be quite "Rortyian" in style i.e the critiques are politically motivated.

From a meta-philosophical perspective I believe there is little "practical" difference between Rorty, Williams and Dennett - not to mention Putnam (see his new book).

Therefore as a political (and hence usefull or something we should care about) work this is a good book.
The most interesting move in this book is the use of Nietzsche.
Very Rortyian indeed.

Rating:
Summary: An Important Book
Review: Williams is a philosopher of extraordinary depth and insight, and this book is a splendid example of how members of glistening Ivory Towers can indeed address the concrete concerns of those who bustle among the popular hordes of relativism. Williams--a wise veteran philosopher--takes up the topic of truth. He approaches the notions of trust, authenticity, and sincerity, and by contrast, he engages the problems of lies, deception, and infelicity. There are numerous lessons to be learned in these pages, some of which the present reviewer notwithstanding most dutifully needs to assimilate into his own deliberative set.

I cannot stress enough how important this book is in our current social and academic milieu. It reaches into the thoracic cavity of philosophy and liberates its hardened, cold heart by messaging throbbing life into it.

Those persuaded by the respective New Age, Poststructuralism, Relativism bent are highly encouraged to read this book. If your nightstand reading is A Course on Miracles or anything pertaining to Ayn Rand, C. Castenada, S. Maclaine, Lacan, Adorno, Rorty, Derrida, K. Silverman, J. Butler, Krishnamurti, tantric sex, or the healing properties of desert rocks, you MUST read this book. If you believe sand fleas are space aliens and are responsible for the human population of Mother Gaia, order now. Hear Ye, Cultural Relativists and anthropology majors!

I also recommend: Nozick, Invariances; Searle, Social Construction; Krausz, Relativism; Nagel, Last Word; and the Williams corpus.

The fundamental point of discussion here is a tension between the pursuit of truthfulness and a certain skeptical doubt as to whether truth is to be had. This book embraces the nature and scope of philosophical inquiry with subtle, clear, and rigorous arguments.

Chapter One: Defines and spells out the philosophical problem. Chapter Two: A fictional account about how the problem of truth arises--its "genealogy." Chapter Three: Discusses language, plain truths, and values. Chapter Four (most important): On truth, assertion, and beliefs. Chapter Five: Sincerity, Lying, and Styles of Deceit. ETC.

This book deserves my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Intelligent Study, Although Slightly Wayward
Review: Williams is one of the wisest and more learned of philosophers working in English, a man of capacious intelligence and brilliant insight, and a man gracious enough to have learned how to write lucid, enjoyable prose. I share Michael Colson's enthusiasm, although I share none of his worries or dislikes. His "Enemies List" is not mine. And I think it should not be Williams's. I remain unpersuaded that the account of what we mean by true discourse given by the bogeymen of postmodernity amounts to a denial that anything's true or that in matters of the mind "anything goes." Williams is on the right track but turns off a little too soon--in what amounts to a failure of attentiveness. But the second part of the book easily compensates for the occasional disappointments of the first part. One can feel he is not entirely fair to some of his philosophical contemporaries, and still feel a great deal of gratitude for the pleasure of his company.