Reality and Reason: Dialectic and the Theory of Knowledge

Is knowledge a reflection of reality? What role do experience and interpretation play in knowledge? Can truth be objective, or is it socially constructed and relative? In this book Sean Sayers makes an important and original contribution to the Marxist discussion of these questions.His thesis is that all ideas - including false, illusory and irrational ones - reflect objective reality. In the course of explaining this view, Sayers develops a historical and realist account of knowledge, which he defends through a powerful critique of classical empiricist, rationalist and Kantian approaches, and with reference to current debates in analytical and continental philosophy.The author draws substantially on Hegel's philosophy, explaining the dialectic approach in epistemology in clear and accessible terms. He demonstrates its relevance to contemporary controversies in philosophy and the social sciences, including current arguments surrounding the work of Marx and Freud.