Do our thoughts and claims about the world give us rational access to the way the world really is? Can subjective experience ever provide a basis for grasping objec-tive truth? These perennial philosophical questions reach to the heart of every human endeavor, from education to science to everyday, successful practice. De-spite the intuitive and nearly universal appeal of realism, influential thinkers from many fields - including educational theory, psychology, cybernetics, literary criti-cism, biology, and physics - have long followed the skeptics in denying knowers any kind of reliable...

Do our thoughts and claims about the world give us rational access to the way the world really is? Can subjective experience ever provide a basis for grasping objec-tive truth? These perennial philosophical questions reach to the heart of every human endeavor, from education to science to everyday, successful practice. De-spite the intuitive and nearly universal appeal of realism, influential thinkers from many fields - including educational theory, psychology, cybernetics, literary criti-cism, biology, and physics - have long followed the skeptics in denying knowers any kind of reliable...