The Book of Absolutes: A Critique of Relativism and a Defence of Universals - Softcover

Gairdner, William D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773536191 ISBN 13: 9780773536197

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Current dogma holds that all cultures and moral values are conditional, nothing human is innate, and Einstein proved that the whole universe is 'relative'. Challenging this position, William Gairdner argues that relativism is not only logically and morally self-defeating but that progress in scientific and intellectual disciplines has actually strengthened the case for absolutes, universals, and constants of nature and human nature. Gairdner refutes the popular belief in cultural relativism by showing that there are hundreds of well-established cross-cultural 'human universals'. He then discusses the many universals found in physics - as well as Einstein's personal regret at how his work was misinterpreted by the public's eagerness to promote relativism. Gairdner also gives a lively account of the many universals of human biology, including the controversial topic of universal gender differences or 'brain sex'. He then looks at universal concepts of both natural and international law, and ends by discussing language theory. He shows how philosophers from Nietzsche to Derrida have misused linguistic concepts to justify their relativism, even though a sustained and successful effort by serious scientists and philosophers of language has revealed myriad universals of human language, ranging from language acquisition, to word-order, to 'Universal Grammar'. From ethics to Einstein, culture to biology, law to language, "The Book of Absolutes" makes complex topics accessible to a broad audience and demonstrates that there are plenty of certainties, even in our postmodern world.

About this title

About the Author

William D. Gairdner is a best-selling author, businessman, and independent scholar . His most recent books are Canada's Founding Debates and The Trouble with Democracy.

Review

, Ian Gen"Gairdner has taken the torch from William F. Buckley's failing hands and lifted it high with his new work ... an objective reader is left wondering how relativism ever got a toehold in the popular imagination in the first place." The Calgary Herald "Strikingly original and important." Tom Flanagan, University of Calgary "Gairdner's intellectual range and control his material is breathtaking ... almost no one writing today has the command of the literature in as many disciplines as this author has." Ian Gentles, York University --Tom Flanagan, Ian Gentles

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0773536191
• ISBN 13: 9780773536197
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416