Conventionalism (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521826198)

The daring idea that convention - human decision - lies at the root both of necessary truths and much of empirical science reverberates through twentieth-century philosophy, constituting a revolution comparable to Kant's Copernican revolution. This book provides a comprehensive study of Conventionalism. Drawing a distinction between two conventionalist theses, the under-determination of science by empirical fact, and the linguistic account of necessity, Yemima Ben-Menahem traces the evolution of both ideas to their origins in Poincar 's geometric conventionalism. She argues that the radical extrapolations of Poincar 's ideas by later thinkers, including Wittgenstein, Quine, and Carnap, eventually led to the decline of conventionalism. This book provides a fresh perspective on twentieth-century philosophy. Many of the major themes of contemporary philosophy emerge in this book as arising from engagement with the challenge of conventionalism.

Author: Yemima Ben-Menahem
ISBN-10: 0521826195
ISBN-13: 9780521826198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/21/2006
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.46lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.32w x 1.05d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 4