Pluralism (philosophy)
This article may lack focus or may be about more than one topic.(January 2023) |
Pluralism is a term used in
In epistemology, pluralism is the position that there is not one consistent means of approaching truths about the world, but rather many. Often this is associated with pragmatism, or conceptual, contextual, or cultural relativism. In the philosophy of science it may refer to the acceptance of co-existing scientific paradigms which though accurately describing their relevant domains are nonetheless incommensurable. In logic, pluralism is the relatively novel view that there is no one correct logic, or alternatively, that there is more than one correct logic.[2] Such as using classical logic in most cases, but using paraconsistent logic to deal with certain paradoxes.
Metaphysical pluralism
Metaphysical pluralism in philosophy is the multiplicity of metaphysical models of the structure and content of reality, both as it appears and as logic dictates that it might be,
Ancient pluralism
In ancient Greece, Empedocles wrote that they were fire, air, water and earth,[7] although he used the word "root" rather than "element" (στοιχεῖον; stoicheion), which appeared later in Plato.[8] From the association (φιλία; philia) and separation (νεῖκος; neikos) of these indestructible and unchangeable root elements, all things came to be in a fullness (πλήρωμα; pleroma) of ratio (λόγος; logos) and proportion (ἀνάλογος; analogos).
Similar to Empedocles, Anaxagoras was another Classical Greek philosopher with links to pluralism. His metaphysical system is centered around mechanically necessitated nous which governs, combines and diffuses the various "roots" of reality (known as homoioneroi[9]). Unlike Empedocles' four "root elements" and similar to Democritus' multitude of atoms (yet not physical in nature), these homoioneroi are used by Anaxagoras to explain the multiplicity in reality and becoming.[10] This pluralist theory of being influenced later thinkers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's theory of monads and Julius Bahnsen's idea of will henades. The notion of a governing nous would also be used by Socrates and Plato, but they will assign it a more active and rational role in their philosophical systems.
Ontological pluralism
The topic of ontological pluralism discusses different ways, kinds, or modes of being. Recent attention in ontological pluralism is due to the work of Kris McDaniel, who defends ontological pluralism in a number of papers. The name for the doctrine is due to Jason Turner, who, following McDaniel, suggests that "In contemporary guise, it is the doctrine that a logically perspicuous description of reality will use multiple
It is common to refer to a film, novel or otherwise fictitious or virtual narrative as not being 'real'. Thus, the characters in the film or novel are not real, where the 'real world' is the everyday world in which we live. However, some authors may argue that fiction informs our concept of reality, and so has some kind of reality.[13][14]
One reading of
""All right: the concept of 'number' is defined for you as the logical sum of these individual interrelated concepts: cardinal numbers, rational numbers, real numbers etc.;" ... — it need not be so. For I can give the concept 'number' rigid limits in this way, that is, use the word 'number' for a rigidly limited concept, but I can also use it so that the extension of the concept is not closed by a frontier. ...Can you give the boundary? No. You can draw one..."
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, excerpt from §68 in Philosophical Investigations
Wittgenstein suggests that it is not possible to identify a single concept underlying all versions of 'number', but that there are many interconnected meanings that transition one to another; vocabulary need not be restricted to technical meanings to be useful, and indeed technical meanings are 'exact' only within some proscribed context.
Eklund has argued that Wittgenstein's conception includes as a special case the technically constructed, largely autonomous, forms of language or
Epistemological pluralism
Epistemological pluralism is a term used in philosophy and in other fields of study to refer to different ways of knowing things, different epistemological methodologies for attaining a full description of a particular field.[16] In the philosophy of science epistemological pluralism arose in opposition to reductionism to express the contrary view that at least some natural phenomena cannot be fully explained by a single theory or fully investigated using a single approach.[16][17]
Logical pluralism
Logical pluralism can be defined a number of ways: the position that there is more than one correct account of
Pluralists of the instrumentalist sort hold if a logic can be correct at all, it based on its ability to answer the logical questions under consideration. If one wants to understand vague propositions, one may need a many-valued logic. Or if one wants to know what the truth-value of the Liar Paradox is, a dialetheic paraconsistent logic may be required. Rudolf Carnap held to a version of logical pluralism:
In logic there are no morals. Everyone is at liberty to build his own logic, i.e. his own language, as he wishes. All that is required of him is that, if he wishes to discuss it, he must state his methods clearly, and give syntactical rules instead of philosophical arguments.
— Rudolph Carnap, excerpt from §17 in The Logical Syntax of Language
See also
Notes
- ^ .
- S2CID 218621064.
- ^ "Pluralism". Philosophy Pages. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Belief that reality ultimately includes many different kinds of things.
- ^ Plato, Republic, Book 6 (509D–513E)
- ISBN 978-0521286909.
- ^ Wayne P. Pomerleau (11 February 2011). "Subsection Realms of reality in article on William James". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Diels –Kranz, Simplicius Physics, frag. B-17
- ^ Plato, Timaeus, 48 b - c
- ^ Curd, Patricia (2015). "Anaxagoras". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- ^ Anaxagoras. Fragments of Anaxagoras.
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, I, 4, 985
- S2CID 10257001.
- ISBN 978-1572304215.
- .
- ISBN 978-0199546008. On-line text found at Cornell
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8166-4763-7. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 June 2010.
- ^ E Brian Davies (2006). "Epistemological pluralism". Available through PhilSci Archive.
- ^ Russell, Gillian. "Logical Pluralism". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- S2CID 35042223.
Further reading
- ISBN 0915144514