False Truths

The Error of Relying on Authority

Edward C. Mendler (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

180 Seiten

2014
Hamilton Books (Verlag)
978-0-7618-6299-4 (ISBN)

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Mendler contends that many of the beliefs, tenets, conclusions, and understandings that are widely accepted as “truths” are, in fact, not valid at all. He asserts that we should challenge them all — from Plato on to contemporary theorists in all of those fields — and analyze every element of their conclusions.

In False Truths, Edward C. Mendler contends that many of the beliefs, tenets, conclusions, and understandings that are widely accepted as “truths” are, in fact, not valid at all. Such dubious and false concepts arise not only in philosophy and theology but also under the rubrics of cosmology, quantum physics, democracy, freedom, economics, and various aspects of “human nature” and evolution. We accept and absorb these false ideas because they were and are propounded by “authorities,” both ancient and modern. Mendler asserts that we should challenge them all — from Plato on to contemporary theorists in all of those fields — and question and analyze every element of their conclusions.

Edward C. Mendler grew up in South Bend, Indiana. He served as a Navy radio technician in Guam during the Bikini A-bomb tests in 1946. He graduated from the Lawrenceville School, from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (magna cum laude), and from Harvard Law School. Mendler practiced law in Boston for fifty years. He has studied and written about philosophy, science, law, and government as well as fiction.

List of Illustrations
Preface

CHAPTER ONE: RELIANCE ON AUTHORITY
Origins
Consequences

CHAPTER TWO: THE STORY OF BELIEFS
How the Ancient Greeks Misled Us
The Middle Ages Muddle
We Were Not Enlightened

CHAPTER THREE: THE PERSISTENCE OF OLD IDEAS
Old and New
Jacques Maritain
Pope John Paul II
John Polkinghorne

CHAPTER FOUR: THE ERROR OF DUALISM
Causation
Epistemology

CHAPTER FIVE: FAITH AND ANTI-FAITH
Faith
Antifaith — Fair and Foul

CHAPTER SIX: PHYSICS AND MYSTERY
Cosmology
Waves, Particles, Quanta

CHAPTER SEVEN: BIOLOGY AND MYSTERY
The Basics of Evolution
The Burgess Shale
Consciousness
Humans and Animals
The Origin of Life

CHAPTER EIGHT: MIND
The Awesome Brain
Free Will and Foolishness
Neuroscience — New Understandings

CHAPTER NINE: EQUALITY, DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM
Equality
Democracy
Freedom

CHAPTER TEN: ENTERPRISE, PLANNING, FREEDOM AND WELFARE
The Basics of Economics
Enterprise and Planning
Welfare and Gridlock

CHAPTER ELEVEN: CONCLUSIONS

Index

Verlagsort	Lanham, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 228 mm
Gewicht	272 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Logik
	Wirtschaft
ISBN-10	0-7618-6299-4 / 0761862994
ISBN-13	978-0-7618-6299-4 / 9780761862994
Zustand	Neuware