The topic for PHILO 215 will
be truth. We will examine the merits of arguments about the nature of
truth, arguments between those who believe we can gain access objectively
to the world by means of reason and objectivity and those who believe
our language, culture, gender, class, ideology or desire subvert our
grasp of the world and befuddle our judgments, including the judgment
there is something called "truth" at all. Beginning with the
confrontation between Socrates and rhetoricians in the ancient Greek
world, we will trace these arguments through to the modern era, and
discuss variations of these arguments -- and some new ones -- found
in Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Rorty and others.