Why this book?
- To become familiar with an analytic and precise critique of relativism.
- To understand the difference between relativism about reality, justification, and rational explanation.
- For readers engaged with postmodern debates and social constructivism.
- To see how philosophy can defend common sense against excessive skepticism.
About the book
Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism by Paul Boghossian is one of the important and readable works of contemporary analytic philosophy on knowledge, truth, and rationality. The book begins with the question of whether reality, truth, and epistemic justification exist independently of cultures, interests, and social frameworks.
Boghossian argues against views that treat science and knowledge as merely social constructions or as products of power and tradition. He tries to show that one can be fallibilist, acknowledge the role of society and history in the formation of beliefs, and still defend the objectivity of reality and the possibility of rational justification.
The book proceeds by distinguishing different kinds of relativism: relativism about reality, relativism about justification, and relativism about the rational explanation of belief. These distinctions help readers separate acceptable claims, such as the influence of human interests on inquiry, from more radical claims, such as the idea that reality itself is constructed.
This work is suitable for philosophy students, readers interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, moral philosophy, and anyone confronting debates about relativism, postmodernism, and social constructivism. Yaser Mirdamadi’s Persian translation also makes the text smooth and accessible for Persian readers.