Book cover of True to Life: Why Truth Matters

Book description

Why truth is important in our everyday lives.

Why does truth matter when politicians so easily sidestep it and intellectuals scorn it as irrelevant? Why be concerned over an abstract idea like truth when something that isn't true—for example, a report of Iraq's attempting to buy materials for nuclear weapons—gets…

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Why read it?

1 author picked True to Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I recommend this book because the author, a professor of philosophy, presents a remarkably compelling, highly readable defense of the value of truth without descending into dogmatism. I was most impressed by the systematic, jargon-free way that Lynch addresses common arguments that are used to undermine the pursuit of truth, including extreme cynicism and extreme relativism.

One of my favorite statements is, “Absolute certainty is impractical and probably impossible. But as I’ve argued, this doesn’t have anything to do with the truth. We can acknowledge the frailty of the human condition and still go on pursuing truth.”

Unlike a lot…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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