The Last Word
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.90
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Last Word for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.90, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
."..[a] subtle, compact, and forceful book....The Last Word is a work of philosophical reflection...a significant contribution to the culture wars of our time."--New York Review of Books
Product Description
In The Last Word, Thomas Nagel, a leading philosopher and Professor of Law, presents a sustained defense of reason against the attacks of subjectivism, delivering systematic rebuttals against its many relativistic claims in the fields of language, logic, ethics, and science. He proposes that reason reflects objective principles whose validity is independent of different points of view, and continues to argue that reason is universal because its only prerequisite is the ability to think systematically and with intelligence. Dismissing relativism as theoretical chic and inconsequential intellectual flourish, he predicts its ultimate stultifying effect on public discourse. The Last Word is a vigorous defense of reason and its universal narratives. Resisting what he describes as the eventual demise of intellectual discourse, Nagel's work sets a new standard in the debate: this book presents the clarity and simplicity of objective reason. Nagel's construction of a coherent framework beyond subjectivism is refreshing, timely, and impressive, and should generate intense interest both within and outside the philosophical community.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
This discussion will be concerned with an issue that runs through practically every area of inquiry and that has even invaded the general culture-the issue of where understanding and justification come to an end. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This discussion will be concerned with an issue that runs through practically every area of inquiry and that has even invaded the general culture-the issue of where understanding and justification come to an end. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Nagel takes on a daunting task: to refute the current philosophical fashion, postmodernism. Going against the grain of contemporary academic thought, Nagel asserts that there are indeed truths that do not depend on our social or cultural perspective. He defends objective truth in logic, science, and even ethics. I have some sympathy for his position, and appreciate the many good points he asserts. In the end, though, I think his refutations are not quite up to the task he has set himself. Still, it is a good effort...and in any event a readable window onto an important contemporary battle in philosophy.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A Rorty-bashing classic. A must read for pragmatists. Whether Nagel has really given the last word in favor of the realists is another question.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a graduate student in Religious Studies and Philosophy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to reference it in my papers. Although, this may not have been the author's intent, his logical and objective approaches to reason, help support the universal and exceptionless principles of the faith! Should be a must-read for any theologian as pointed out in recent religious periodicals like Christianity Today.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A polished perspective
As a graduate student in Particle Accelerator Psychology and Nordic Religious Studies, Nagel's The Last Word strikes me as an analytic philosophers last ditch effort to go to... Read more
Published on 14 April 1999
Visionary, Yet Not A Car Battery
In this ether-soluble book, Nagel embraces a huge task: even though no one knows what the first word was (linguists are still debating whether it was "cavalcade," or... Read more
Published on 14 April 1999
Typical academic self-satisfaction.
It would seem both from the title and the short reviews posted above that Nagel's latest is a daring re-affirmation of rationality and "standards" in a world gone awry... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 1998
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
