Book Review

Abstract

While the first-person style of philosophising has a long tradition dating back to Plato and Socrates, it has been almost completely abandoned in modern times, as scholars tend to present their philosophical ideas in a matter-of-fact manner, omitting (or concealing) possible biases, personal preferences, and dispositions. That such an approach gives only an illusion of objectivity is a major theme of Triumph of Uncertainty. Developing a subjectivist approach to both philosophy and science, Tauber has written an intimate self-reflection, calling for a greater appreciation of the personal, if not in style, then in awareness of the thinker's subjective role in his/her own research. He does so by demonstrating how the analytical, whether scientific or philosophical, cannot be sundered from human-centered values, experience, cultural bias, and emotional influences. The book begins with a review of the roots of the author's own speculative temperament traced to his childhood and adolescence as a son of Hungarian Holocaust survivors in America (Chapter 1). He discusses his early career choices, which at the time were equally driven by his immigrant insecurities, internal emotional struggles, and his evolving youthful interests in humanities and science (Chapter 2). Although he eventually followed the voice of rational objectivity by pursuing a career in academic medicine, disillusionment crept into his work in the laboratory and at the bedside, making him realise that the absolute certainty and truthfulness so expected of experimental research were unachievable (Chapter 3). This realisation set him on a trail of intellectual exploration, which he decided to pursue no longer at the laboratory bench, but within the walls of a philosophy department (Chapters 4–5).