The necessity of errors / John Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, John, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Error.

Truth.

Physical Description:

309 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Verso, 2011.

Summary:

Truth and error are interdependent, in that claims to truth can be made only in the light of previous error. In The Necessity of Errors, John Roberts calls into question the long tradition that categorizes all error as something that dissolves truth and needs to be eradicated. Drawing on the fragmented corpus of writing on this subject, from Plato to Adorno, Robespierre to Bensaid, and covering everything from philosophy to political praxis, this wide-ranging account explores the benefits of and, indeed, our dependence on error. Errors, Roberts finds, are productive, but not in any uniform sense or under all circumstances - a theory of errors needs a dialectics of error. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Error truth and the subject 27

2 Error scientific progress and veridical truth 53

3 Error truth and psychoanalysis 109

4 Error, history and political praxis 157

5 Error, reason and art 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [259]-298) and index.

ISBN:

9781844677399

1844677397

OCLC:

711052056