Truth and social reality : a metaphysical inquiry / Aaron M. Griffith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Griffith, Aaron M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Truth--Social aspects.

Truth.

Social epistemology.

Reality.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Truth and Social Reality: A Metaphysical Inquiry presents a new theory of social truth and social construction. The book weds truthmaker theory with recent work in social ontology, arguing that social truths are true in virtue of socially constructed portions of the world. It focuses on the construction of human social kinds like gender, race, class, and disability. The book offers novel accounts of social construction (one in terms of truthmaking), realism, social kind pluralism, social context, the context dependency of social truth, and social vagueness. Overall, Truth and Social Reality presents a realist picture of the social world in which there are objective truths about the way things are in the social world. Social truth is not socially constructed despite being grounded in a socially constructed reality. The theory it provides nonetheless captures the contingency, alterability, vagueness of the social world, and the context dependency of social truth. The book also addresses the relationships between truth, power, and justice. It argues that truth itself is not a tool of oppression, as some maintain. Rather, truth and truth-telling play an essential role in upending oppression and achieving justice. Truth and Social Reality aims to rebut the cynicism of the “post-truth” age by defending the possibility and value of social truth"-- Oxford Academic.

This volume argues that there are truths about our social world and that those truths are produced by that social world. It looks at questions around truth, reality, objectivity, social construction, and relativism, and provides an account of how gender, race, class, and disability are socially constructed.

Contents:

Truth and truthmaking

Truthmaking and social ontology

Realism and social reality

Socially constructed truthmakers I : grounding

Socially constructed truthmakers II : truthmaking

Social contexts

Relativism, contextualism, and objectivity

Vagueness and social truth

Truth, power, and justice/

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 29, 2025).

Other Format:

Print version: Griffith, Aaron M. Truth and social reality

ISBN:

9780198948483

0198948484

9780198948476

0198948476

OCLC:

1521318428

Publisher Number:

CIPO000242986

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license