The Plato Cult and Other Philosophical Follies

This is a book of philosophy, written by a philosopher and intended for anyone who knows enough philosophy to have been seriously injured, antagonised, mystified or intoxicated by it. Stove is passionately polemical, a philosophical counterpart to Tom Wolfe. Setting out to deflate a few philosophical reputations, he lambastes both the dead (Plato, Hegel, Kant, Foucault) and the living (Popper, Nozick, Feyerabend, Goodman). Yet he says things that need to be said, and that others often lack the courage to say. Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1 Cole Porter and Karl Popper: the Jazz Age in the Philosophy of Science 2 Philosophy and Lunacy: Nelson Goodman and the Omnipotence of Words 3 "Always apologize, always explain": Robert Nozick's War Wounds 4 "I only am escaped alone to tell thee": Epistemology and the Ishmael Effect 5 Idealism: a Victorian Horror-story (Part One) 6 Idealism: a Victorian Horror-story (Part Two) 7 What is Wrong with Our Thoughts? A Neo-Positivist Credo Index This is a book on philosophy which subjects several theories to critical examination and asks how they relate to our commonsensical notions of reality. Among the celebrated philosophers whom the author tries to debunk are Plato, Hegel, Kant, Foucault, Popper, Nozick, Feyerabend and Goodman. David Stove. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.