Anti-realism
In
In anti-realism, the truth of a statement rests on its demonstrability through internal logic mechanisms, such as the context principle or intuitionistic logic, in direct opposition to the realist notion that the truth of a statement rests on its correspondence to an external, independent reality.[2] In anti-realism, this external reality is hypothetical and is not assumed.[3][4]
Anti-realism in its most general sense can be understood as being in contrast to a generic realism, which holds that distinctive objects of a subject-matter exist and have properties independent of one's beliefs and conceptual schemes.
Varieties
Metaphysical anti-realism
One kind of metaphysical anti-realism maintains a
On a more abstract level,
In
Mathematical anti-realism
In the
The "
Field developed his views into
Counterarguments
Anti-realist arguments hinge on the idea that a satisfactory,
Another line of defense is to maintain that abstract objects are relevant to mathematical reasoning in a way that is non causal, and not analogous to perception. This argument is developed by Jerrold Katz in his 2000 book Realistic Rationalism. In this book, he put forward a position called realistic rationalism, which combines metaphysical realism and rationalism.
A more radical defense is to deny the separation of physical world and the platonic world, i.e. the mathematical universe hypothesis (a variety of mathematicism). In that case, a mathematician's knowledge of mathematics is one mathematical object making contact with another.
Semantic anti-realism
The term "
According to intuitionists (anti-realists with respect to mathematical objects), the
Dummett argues that this notion of truth lies at the bottom of various classical forms of anti-realism, and uses it to re-interpret phenomenalism, claiming that it need not take the form of reductionism.
Dummett's writings on anti-realism draw heavily on the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, concerning meaning and rule following, and can be seen as an attempt to integrate central ideas from the Philosophical Investigations into the constructive tradition of analytic philosophy deriving from Gottlob Frege.
Scientific anti-realism
In philosophy of science, anti-realism applies chiefly to claims about the non-reality of "unobservable" entities such as electrons or genes, which are not detectable with human senses.[20][21]
One prominent variety of scientific anti-realism is instrumentalism, which takes a purely agnostic view towards the existence of unobservable entities, in which the unobservable entity X serves as an instrument to aid in the success of theory Y and does not require proof for the existence or non-existence of X.
Moral anti-realism
In the
- The Semantic Thesis: Moral statements have meaning, they express propositions, or are the kind of things that can be true or false.
- The Alethic Thesis: Some moral propositions are true.
- The Metaphysical Thesis: The metaphysical status of moral facts is robust and ordinary, not importantly different from other facts about the world.
Different version of moral anti-realism deny different statements: specifically,
Examples of anti-realist moral theories might be:[27]
There is a debate as to whether moral relativism is actually an anti-realist position. While many versions deny the metaphysical thesis, some do not, as one could imagine a system of morality which requires you to obey the written laws in your country.[28] Such a system would be a version of moral relativism, as different individuals would be required to follow different laws, but the moral facts are physical facts about the world, not mental facts, so they are metaphysically ordinary. Thus, different versions of moral relativism might be considered anti-realist or realist.[29]
Epistemic anti-realism
Just as moral anti-realism asserts the nonexistence of normative facts, epistemic anti-realism asserts the nonexistence of facts in the domain of epistemology.[30] Thus, the two are now sometimes grouped together as "metanormative anti-realism".[30] Prominent defenders of epistemic anti-realism include Hartry Field, Simon Blackburn, Matthew Chrisman, and Allan Gibbard, among others.[30]
See also
- Arend Heyting
- Constructivist epistemology
- Crispin Wright
- Critical realism (philosophy of perception)
- Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer
- Metaepistemology
- Münchhausen trilemma
- Neil Tennant (philosopher)
- Philosophical realism
- Quasi-realism
References
- ^ Realism (1963) p. 145
- ^ Realism (1963) p. 146
- ^ Truth (1959) p. 24 (postscript)
- ^ Blackburn, Simon ([2005] 2008). "realism/anti-realism", The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. revised, pp. 308–9. Oxford.
- ^ Miller, Alexander (2019), "Realism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-09-28
- ^ Realism (1963) pp. 147–8
- ^ Karin Johannesson, God Pro Nobis: On Non-metaphysical Realism and the Philosophy of Religion, Peeters Publishers, 2007, p. 26.
- Platonic Formsor in some other manner."
- ^ "Chrysippus – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy".
- ^ David Bostock, Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p. 43: "All of Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume supposed that mathematics is a theory of our ideas, but none of them offered any argument for this conceptualist claim, and apparently took it to be uncontroversial."
- ^ Stefano Di Bella, Tad M. Schmaltz (eds.), The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2017, p. 64 "there is a strong case to be made that Spinoza was a conceptualist about universals" and p. 207 n. 25: "Leibniz's conceptualism [is related to] the Ockhamist tradition..."
- ^ P. Stekeler-Weithofer (2016), "Hegel's Analytic Pragmatism" Archived 2020-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, University of Leipzig, pp. 122–4.
- ^ Oberst, Michael. 2015. "Kant on Universals." History of Philosophy Quarterly 32(4):335–352.
- ^ A. Sarlemijn, Hegel's Dialectic, Springer, 1975, p. 21.
- ^ Field, Hartry, 1989, Realism, Mathematics, and Modality, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 68
- ^ "Since abstract objects are outside the nexus of causes and effects, and thus perceptually inaccessible, they cannot be known through their effects on us" — Jerrold Katz, Realistic Rationalism, 2000, p. 15
- ^ "Philosophy Now: "Mathematical Knowledge: A dilemma"". Archived from the original on 2011-02-07. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
- ^ "Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2018.
- ^ "Review of". The Emperor's New Mind.
- ^ Hacking, Ian (1999). The Social Construction Of What?. Harvard University Press. p. 84.
- ^ Okasha, Samir (2002). Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Joyce, Richard (2016), "Moral Anti-Realism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-03-08
- OCLC 61151356.
No single description is likely to capture all realist views, but a reasonably accurate rule is to understand moral realism as the conjunction of three theses: The semantic thesis: The primary semantic role of moral predicates (such as "right" and "wrong") is to refer to moral properties (such as rightness and wrongness), so that moral statements (such as "honesty is good" and "slavery is unjust") purport to represent moral facts, and express propositions that are true or false (or approximately true, largely false and so on). The alethic thesis: Some moral propositions are in fact true. The metaphysical thesis: Moral propositions are true when actions and other objects of moral assessment have the relevant moral properties (so that the relevant moral facts obtain), where these facts and properties are robust: their metaphysical status, whatever it is, is not relevantly different from that of (certain types of ordinary non-moral facts and properties).
- OCLC 57283356.)
This one is used to designate that family of ethical positions in which it is supposed that moral judgements do not possess truth-value and hence can not be known. An example of a non-cognitivist position is emotivism; that is, the claim that moral judgements are merely expressions of emotion.
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The moral error theorist thinks that although our moral judgments aim at the truth, they systematically fail to secure it. The moral error theorist stands to morality as the atheist stands to religion.
- OCLC 61151356.
A subjectivist ethical theorist is a theory according to which moral judgements about men or their actions are judgements about the way people react to these men and actions - that is, the way they think or feel about them.
- ^ Joyce, Richard (2016), "Moral Anti-Realism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2019-07-25
- ^ Joyce, Richard (2016), "Moral Anti-Realism (Supplement on Moral Objectivity and Moral Relativism)", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-03-08,
In all cases, it may be that what determines the difference in the relevant contexts is something "mind-dependent"—in which case it would be anti-realist relativism—but it need not be; perhaps what determines the relevant difference is an entirely mind-independent affair, making for an objectivist (and potentially realist) relativism.
- ^ Joyce, Richard (2016), "Moral Anti-Realism (Supplement on Moral Objectivity and Moral Relativism)", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2021-03-08,
Moral relativism is sometimes thought of as a version of anti-realism, but (short of stipulating usage) there is no basis for this classification; it is better to say that some versions of relativism may be anti-realist and others may be realist.
- ^ a b c "Metaepistemology". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
Bibliography
- Michael Dummett (1978). Truth and Other Enigmas. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674910768.
- Michael Dummett (1963), Truth. reprinted, pp. 1–24.
- Michael Dummett (1963), Realism. reprinted, pp. 145–165.
- Michael Dummett (1967), Platonism. reprinted, pp. 202–214.
- Lee Braver (2007). A Thing of This World: a History of Continental Anti-Realism, Northwestern University Press: 2007.
- Ian Hacking (1999). The Social Construction of What?. Harvard University Press: 2001.
- Samir Okasha (2002). Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
External links
- "Scientific Realism and Antirealism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Semantic challenges to realism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy