Yet another book on the subject:
d) the whole idea of universal truths is a misunderstanding based on a limited philosophical system?
Again, "universal truths" is one of those "everyone knows what I mean" terms that nonetheless start to feel like nailing Jell-o to a wall when you actually begin to try to pin it down. Half the room will agree to a particular meaning, and the other half will object strenuously (*whichever* of dozens of possible ways you try to define it).
One of (hell, *THE*) best books for the layman on these types of issues (as well as many others) is "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", by Douglas Hofstadter. Truly one of the great books in the history of mankind. And no, I'm not exaggerating. In a step-by-step, understandable, *entertaining* manner, he walks the reader on a grand tour through (using Amazon.com's subject list for the book):
Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence.And unlike most books on any/all of these topics, the material is not "dumbed down" -- anyone who works through the book will get a *real* appreciation and working understanding of these subjects.And as the "braid" in the title promises, the author delivers on showing the intimate interconnections between these topics. In a sense, although the book is about *all* those things, it's really all about the *same* thing. And the book itself is so tightly constructed that it sometimes feels that if one sentence were accidentally removed, the whole book would unravel like a snagged tapestry. Even when it seems that the author is starting a new chapter on an entirely different topic, at some point you'll find that your brain suddenly goes, *oooooooohh*...., as you realize that he has managed to weave another "thread" into the very same subject matter that the last chapter covered.
A truly remarkable book, and I'm not the only one to think so. It won the Pulitzer Prize, an amazing achievement for a book in this genre. There are better books on the subject for a technical audience, of course, but this one's excellent for a layman who has little or no prior background. It starts from "the ground up", but climbs to amazing heights for a book of its type.
I concur! I wish the hell I could find my copy. It apparently fell into a black hole during one of my job switches.
Probably at the bottom of that Bankers Box, second from the left, on the bottom layer of the stacks of boxes, out in my garage.
Just FYI, Verena Huber-Dyson thinks Hofstadter's book is crappy and wrote a satirical review of it for the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. I'd kind of like to read that review, but haven't. I read most of the book decades ago and remember thinking it was kind of show-offy, but I'm not prepared to judge it on content without a re-read (a not-very-likely circumstance).