Dialogue (Münster in Westfalen, Germany)

What is "truth" in analytic philosophy after logical positivism? What can we say about "truth" after taking into account the so-called hermeneutical circle? According to Nietzsche, "truth is that form of error without which human beings could not live." From this definition it follows that the point is not the rightness of a theory, but its importance for human existence. Could we say the same from an epistemological point of view? Who (or what) could be the neutral arbiter among different conceptual schemes? Can an interpretative paradigm stand in as a substitute for traditional objectivity? This volume concludes that "truth" is relative to the various fields of philosophy: aesthetics, logic, epistemology, ethics, and politics.

Riccardo Dottori is professor of philosophy at the University of Rome.