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Author Ben-Menahem, Yemima, 1946-

Title Conventionalism / Yemima Ben-Menahem.

Publication Info. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (x, 330 pages) : illustrations
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-320) and index.
Contents Overview : the varieties of conventionalism -- Origins : Poincaré and Duhem on convention -- Relativity : from "experience and geometry" to "geometry and experience" -- Implicit definition -- "Unlimited possibilities" : Carnap on convention -- Metaphor and argument : Quine on convention -- Wittgenstein : from conventionalism to iconoclasm.
Summary "The daring idea that convention - human decision - lies at the root of so-called necessary truths, on the one hand, and much of empirical science, on the other, reverberates through twentieth-century philosophy, constituting a revolution comparable to Kant's Copernican revolution. Conventionalism is the first comprehensive study of this radical turn. One of the conclusions it reaches is that the term 'truth by convention', widely held to epitomize conventionalism, reflects a misunderstanding that has led to the association of conventionalism with relativism and postmodernism. Conventionalism, this book argues, did not contend that truths can be stipulated, but rather, that stipulations are often confused with truths. Their efforts were thus directed toward disentangling truth and convention, not reducing truth to convention."--Jacket.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Convention (Philosophy) -- History.
Convention (Philosophy)
History.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Ben-Menahem, Yemima, 1946- Conventionalism. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006 0521826195 (DLC) 2005014333 (OCoLC)60543404
ISBN 9780511281945 (electronic book)
0511281943 (electronic book)
0521826195
9780521826198
9780511584404 (electronic book)
0511584407 (electronic book)
9781107407312
1107407311