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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
An incisive critique of Postmodern view of truth, 22 Mar 2001
By A Customer
Groothuis takes on the philosophers and thinkers of postmodernism and demonstrates that their notions of truth, both metaphysical and epistemic, have had a corrosive effect upon contemporary culture and thought. He maintains the view that truth is an universal objective absolute, to which all people have access. This, he claims, is the evangelical and Biblical view of truth, which is in danger of decaying in the present postmodern climate. With this assumption, Groothuis sets about defending objective truth in several different ways. First, he takes on those representatives of postmodern notions of truth, such as Richard Rorty, and shows that their views involve a commitment to a coherence view of truth (that some belief is true just so long as it coheres with other beliefs in the web of beliefs that I have. But this web has no reference outside of itself to some objective realm of truth, to which it corresponds.) In place of this, Groothuis defends the correspondence view of truth (that is, a proposition is true if, and only if, it conforms to that which is objectively true. I believe 1+1=2, and this is true precisely because it reflects the universal mathematical truth that 1+1 does =2! So something is true as it corresponds to an objective realm of true propositions which God knows.) Second, he shows that the postmodern version of truth means there can be no foundation for ethical thinking. All ethics are simply reifications of what I believe is true, period. Third, this view has implications for other areas of thought, including race and gender questions (Groothuis is an egalitarian for those aware of the evangelical debates on this one - and puts a good case for egalitarianism). It also corrupts any objective view of art and beauty, captured in the postmodern mantra 'beauty is (only) in the eye of the beholder'. Finally, in an appendix, Groothuis deals with television, the principle agent of a postmodern ethic. He shows that an uncritical approach to T.V. provides a conduit for postmodern values to become part of a person's thinking, since television is about passive entertainment, not critical interaction with, the material being shown (unlike reading!). This is a useful study, which is very accessible and clearly written. It compliments other recent treatments of the similar issues, such as Plantinga's, in Warranted Christian Belief (philosophical), and Carson's in The Gagging of God (theological). But it is not particularly groundbreaking. Its chief merit is the way in which it brings all these issues together in a readable for |
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