Review to Follow

I listened to the audiobook version. While clearly read, which was all it needed to be, the audiobook was not the best way to understand the book because of how much denser it was written, compared to Micheal Sandel's Tyranny of Merit (which read like a well-organized lecture series). I have the impression that Williams was intellectually generous in considering arguments from a wide range of sources while discerning in considering the truthfulness (ding!) of them. The sheer variety of discussions (Ancient history and myth, Rousseau's sincerity, semantic theories of truth, liberal politics, critical theory) is the evidence of how productive Williams' brand of genealogy is. I'm probably far too impressed to give a fair-minded critique, but I really enjoyed this book.

A mature and elegant defense of truth - personal, private, and public. I like the interlinked use of naturalism, genealogy, and nonreductionist explanation.

Reading Williams is a real but fairly low-key pleasure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/...