Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy - Stephen Hales

In this rich and well written book, divided into four large chapters, Stephen Hales defends the coherence of a distinctive form of relativism according to which truth is indexed to epistemic perspectives, and he contends that we have to accept that the truth of philosophical propositions varies between different epistemic perspectives. He reaches this conclusion by arguing that it is the only tenable solution to a problem for philosophical knowledge which he sets out in the first half of the book. The problem itself and Hales' solution are of independent interest. The problem is of interest because it concerns the status which ‘intuition’ has within philosophy, and by pursuing it Hales attempts to get right to the heart of philosophical methodology. Whether or not his view of the matter is ultimately correct, this is an important issue which has received too little attention to date, and his discussion is a welcome addition to the literature. Hales' epistemic relativist solution is of interest because most relativist accounts are developed along conceptual lines (roughly, that propositions are true relative to conceptual schemes). But Hales' account is not only original but, to my mind, more plausible than its conceptual counterparts

Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) · Epistemology · Intuition · Philosophical methodology · Philosophy of science · Relativism · Universality (dynamical systems) · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science