What Makes Anything True, Good, Beautiful?: Challenges to Justification

The essential question we all ask is this: "Is it true?" In this compelling and wide-ranging analysis, Delacroix argues the real question should be, "How do you know it is true?" and offers a history of the kinds of justifications cultures have used to support their claims that anything might be judged to be true, good, or beautiful.The consensus that makes verbalizing such support unnecessary has evaporated twice in modern history, first in the Reformation and again at the dawn of the twentieth century. A competition among justifications ensued, leading to wildly differing understandings of what our most elemental terms mean. We are still working through the postmodern revolt of the twentieth century, with practical consequences for knowing truth, choosing goodness, and appreciating beauty.