Reality And Truth: A Critical and Constructive Essay Concerning Knowledge, Certainty, and Truth

REALITY AND TRUTH: A CRITICAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE ESSAY CONCERNING KNOWLEDGE, CERTAINTY, AND TRUTH, John G. Vance, hardcover, 1917. BOOK CONDITION: good. The text block is in fair condition, with no dogears, but a few tiny tears at tops of pages and many pages with checkmarks beside sentences and some underlining. The blue boards are intact but in poor condition because of a puncture hole and tear on the spine. The corners are bumped as is the spine and there is edge wear. 7 ½ x 5 ½, 344 pages, 18 ounces XX John G. Vance held a Master of Arts degree and a Ph.D before becoming a professor of philosophy in England at the beginning of the 20th century. He wrote the preface to this book in 1917 when he was at Rugeley Camp, Cannock Chase, which was a massive training ground for British soldiers headed to the Western Front of World War II. Finding nothing else about John G. Vance online, I might guess that he died in that war. [From the preface] For many years it has been my great desire to give to my fellow-countrymen, and, if might be, to the English-speaking world, a critical but definite treatment of the foundations of knowledge, truth, and certainty. No problem could conceivably be more insistent or more urgent. Like the piles that are driven deep below the surface of the water, unseen but necessary supports, the theory of knowledge upholds all. Whatever we attempt within the whole vast range of the theoretical or practical sciences, all depends ultimately upon our solution of the problem of knowledge. Thus whether we are interested in theology or natural science, in speculative philosophy or social work, in politics and economics, or art and literature, matters little. When one man sets out to think or two set out to agree upon some idea or plan, they invariably rely upon some accepted view of the limits and possibilities of our knowing powers, and almost invariably they differ. We all have some working theory of knowledge, however ill-defined and inarticulate. And there lies the danger.…