John MacFarlane debates how we might make sense of the idea that truth is relative, and how we might use this idea to give satisfying accounts of parts of our thought and talk that have resisted traditional methods of analysis. Although there is a substantial philosophical literature on relativism about truth, going back to Plato's Theaetetus, this literature (both pro and con) has tended to focus on refutations of the doctrine, or refutations of these refutations, at the expense of saying clearly what the doctrine is. In contrast, Assessment Sensitivity begins with a clear account of what it is to be a relativist about truth, and uses this view to give satisfying accounts of what we mean when we talk about what is tasty, what we know, what will happen, what might be the case, and what we ought to do. The book seeks to provide a richer framework for the description of linguistic practices than standard truth-conditional semantics affords: one that allows not just standard contextual sensitivity (sensitivity to features of the context in which an expression is used), but assessment sensitivity (sensitivity to features of the context from which a use of an expression is assessed). The Context and Content series is a forum for outstanding original research at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive science. The general editor is Francois Recanati (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris).

About the Author
John MacFarlane received his B.A. in Philosophy from Harvard College, in addition to an MA in Classics and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2000 he took up a position at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and a member of the Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science. His work has ranged widely over a number of philosophical topics, including the history of philosophy, the philosophy of logic and mathematics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language.

Reviews
... a masterful book that is both more original and more carefully crafted than the average contemporary philosophy book. * Max Kolbel, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online *
MacFarlanes account is penetrating and very, very subtle, and his defense of it is a tour de force * Diana Raffman, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research *
MacFarlanes book is a fascinating book, highly recommended to any philosopher interested in philosophy of language, formal semantics, epistemology, meta-ethics and beyond. It will serve as a springboard for future work both about relativism, as well as particular domains of application. * Christos Kyriacou, Dialectica *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199682751
Author John MacFarlane
Format Hardback
Page Count 362
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 696g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 30mm