Full Description
Often rejected out of hand as the enemy of clarity and convincingness, ambiguity—in thought, speech, writing, analysis, or theory—should not be overlooked. Donald A. Crosby explores the innumerable positive contributions of conceptual and discursive ambiguity in situations where ambiguity can be the amicable friend of intelligibility and convincingness rather than their sworn enemy. While people have been willing to acknowledge the positive role ambiguity can play in poetry, story, myth, ritual, oratory, and song, Crosby argues that its positive roles extend far beyond these modes of reflection and expression and into the whole of life. Amicable Ambiguity: The Indispensable Value of Vagueness, Open-Endedness, and Uncertainty shows how, why, and when this claim may hold true and needs to incorporated both across academic disciplines as well as in the more ordinary areas of thought and experience.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: The Ballast of Ambiguity
Chapter Two: Politics, Morality, and History
Chapter Three: Ambiguities of Nature
Chapter Four: Religion and Ambiguity
Chapter Five: Ambiguities of Technology
Chapter Six: Ambiguities of Claims to Knowledge
Chapter Seven: Ambiguities of Freedom
Chapter Eight: Ambiguities of Conviction
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
