The Indispensability of Metaphysical Realism

The Indispensability of Metaphysical Realism PDF Author: John D. Mariana
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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The Indispensability of Metaphysical Realism

The Indispensability of Metaphysical Realism PDF Author: John D. Mariana
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description


The Problem of Realism

The Problem of Realism PDF Author: Michele Marsonet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135173430X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
This title was first published in 2003:This book explores the problem of realism, both metaphysical and scientific. Renowned specialists in the field - including Michael Devitt, David Papineau, Mark Sainsbury and Wesley Salmon - contribute new essays that shed new light on the main topics in the current realism/antirealism debate. Discussing a wide range of issues related to realism, both in metaphysics and in the philosophy of science, they address more specific questions including those concerning metaphysical realism, scientific realism, the relations between epistemology and ontology, causation, dispositions and personal identity, and the relations between science and common sense. Presenting a comprehensive overview of the problem of realism, as well as in-depth discussion of particular topics, this book offers valuable insights for both students and researchers in the field. It can also be used in undergraduate and graduate courses of philosophy.

Realism and Antirealism

Realism and Antirealism PDF Author: William P. Alston
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501720562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Throughout the past century, a debate has raged over the thesis of realism and its alternatives. Realism—the seemingly commonsensical view that all or most of what we encounter in the world exists and is what it is independently of human thought—has been vigorously denied by such prominent intellectuals as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Thomas Kuhn, Hilary Putnam, and Nelson Goodman. The opponents of realism, among them historians and social scientists who support social constructionism, hold that all or most of reality depends on human conceptual schemes and beliefs. In this volume of original essays, a group of philosophers explores the ongoing controversy. The book opens with an introduction by William P. Alston, whose writing on the subject has been widely influential. Selected essays then compare and contrast aspects of the arguments put forward by the realists with those of the antirealists. Other chapters discuss the importance of the debate for philosophical topics such as epistemology and for domains ranging from religion, literature, and science to morality.

Properties, Powers and Structures

Properties, Powers and Structures PDF Author: Alexander Bird
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136345728
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
While the phrase "metaphysics of science" has been used from time to time, it has only recently begun to denote a specific research area where metaphysics meets philosophy of science—and the sciences themselves. The essays in this volume demonstrate that metaphysics of science is an innovative field of research in its own right. The principle areas covered are: The modal metaphysics of properties: What is the essential nature of natural properties? Are all properties essentially categorical? Are they all essentially dispositions, or are some categorical and others dispositional? Realism in mathematics and its relation to science: What does a naturalistic commitment of scientific realism tell us about our commitments to mathematical entities? Can this question be framed in something other than a Quinean philosophy? Dispositions and their relation to causation: Can we generate an account of causation that takes dispositionality as fundamental? And if we take dispositions as fundamental (and hence not having a categorical causal basis), what is the ontological ground of dispositions? Pandispositionalism: Could all properties be dispositional in nature? Natural kinds: Are there natural kinds, and if so what account of their nature should we give? For example, do they have essences? Here we consider how these issues may be illuminated by considering examples from reals science, in particular biochemistry and neurobiology.

Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy

Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy PDF Author: Heather Dyke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135910294
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
This book is an investigation into metaphysics: its aims, scope, methodology and practice. Dyke argues that metaphysics should take itself to be concerned with investigating the fundamental nature of reality, and suggests that the ontological significance of language has been grossly exaggerated in the pursuit of that aim.

God Pro Nobis

God Pro Nobis PDF Author: Karin Johannesson
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042918566
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
In theology and the philosophy of religion questions concerning God's existence are often understood and discussed in terms of metaphysical realism. Metaphysical realism, however, is a philosophically untenable perspective, according to this study. Its impact on the philosophy of religion is therefore problematic. By using arguments presented by W.V. Quine, Hilary Putnam and William P. Alston the author shows why metaphysical realism is a philosophically untenable perspective and what this implies when it comes to questions concerning God's existence. Drawing on the work of Putnam, Michael Dummett and Donald Davidson, the author elaborates a non-metaphysical realist perspective that she recommends as a philosophically tenable alternative that can be used in theology and the philosophy of religion. Non-metaphysical realism, this study claims, encourages philosophers of religion to engage in a fruitful reflection on present-day problems caused by the phenomenon of religion and of importance to human beings living in today's society.

Taking Morality Seriously

Taking Morality Seriously PDF Author: David Enoch
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019161856X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In Taking Morality Seriously: A Defense of Robust Realism David Enoch develops, argues for, and defends a strongly realist and objectivist view of ethics and normativity more broadly. This view—according to which there are perfectly objective, universal, moral and other normative truths that are not in any way reducible to other, natural truths—is familiar, but this book is the first in-detail development of the positive motivations for the view into reasonably precise arguments. And when the book turns defensive—defending Robust Realism against traditional objections—it mobilizes the original positive arguments for the view to help with fending off the objections. The main underlying motivation for Robust Realism developed in the book is that no other metaethical view can vindicate our taking morality seriously. The positive arguments developed here—the argument from the deliberative indispensability of normative truths, and the argument from the moral implications of metaethical objectivity (or its absence)—are thus arguments for Robust Realism that are sensitive to the underlying, pre-theoretical motivations for the view.

Philosophy in an Age of Science

Philosophy in an Age of Science PDF Author: Hilary Putnam
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674050134
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
Hilary Putnam's unceasing self-criticism has led to the frequent changes of mind he is famous for, but his thinking is also marked by considerable continuity. A simultaneous interest in science and ethicsÑunusual in the current climate of contentionÑhas long characterized his thought. In Philosophy in an Age of Science, Putnam collects his papers for publicationÑhis first volume in almost two decades. Mario De Caro and David Macarthur's introduction identifies central themes to help the reader negotiate between Putnam past and Putnam present: his critique of logical positivism; his enduring aspiration to be realist about rational normativity; his anti-essentialism about a range of central philosophical notions; his reconciliation of the scientific worldview and the humanistic tradition; and his movement from reductive scientific naturalism to liberal naturalism. Putnam returns here to some of his first enthusiasms in philosophy, such as logic, mathematics, and quantum mechanics. The reader is given a glimpse, too, of ideas currently in development on the subject of perception. Putnam's work, contributing to a broad range of philosophical inquiry, has been said to represent a Òhistory of recent philosophy in outline.Ó Here it also delineates a possible future.

New Waves in Metaphysics

New Waves in Metaphysics PDF Author: A. Hazlett
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230297420
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
A collection of new essays by young scholars on the cutting edge of this ancient philosophical area. Diverse topics, including ontology, free will, fundamental properties, and causation, the volume will appeal both to specialists and to anyone interested in the present and future state of metaphysics in the English-speaking world.

Metaphysics of Morality

Metaphysics of Morality PDF Author: Christopher B. Kulp
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 303023410X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This is a book on metaethics—in particular, an inquiry into the metaphysical foundations of morality. After carefully exploring the metaphysical commitments, or lack thereof, of the leading versions of moral anti-realism, Kulp develops a new and in-depth theory of moral realism. Starting with the firm recognition of the importance of our common sense belief that we possess a great deal of moral knowledge—that, for example, some acts are objectively right and some objectively wrong—the book goes on to examine the metaphysical grounds of various skeptical responses to this perspective. In great part, the book is devoted to developing a version of realist metaethics: specifically, developing in detail realist theories of moral truth, moral facts, and moral properties.Concluding with the rejection of prominent contemporary forms of moral anti-realism, Kulp presents a rigorous non-naturalistic theory of moral realism, and a vindication of the basic commitments of commonsense moral thought.