Questions tagged [anti-realism]
Anti-realism is an epistemological view first articulated in analytic philosophy by Michael Dummett. The truth of a statement rests on its being demonstrated and not on the assumed existence of an external reality associated with the statement.
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Did Dummett botch his anti-realism?
Michael Dummett's 1963 essay "The philosophical significance of Gödel's theorem" is considered one of the earliest formulations of an anti-realist position. But did Dummett do a good job in ...
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Is there any knowledge such that a realist mindset is necessary to grasp it? (As apposed to an anti-realist mindset)
I'm trying to learn what the stakes are in the realism vs anti-realism debate across science, mathematics, and everything really. Is it the case an anti-realist (about scientific objects, mathematical ...
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What meta-ethical standpoint is this?
What meta-ethical standpoint is this? I am not saying it's my view, and it just come up in conversation. If everyone thought we should make human sacrifices, then it would neither be moral or immoral, ...
user71399
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Mathematical Realism and 0=1
Mathematical Realism is the notion that mathematical truth exists, and is not subjective or merely a mental construction.
Inspired by Noah Schweber’s recent post on Math Stack Exchange: https://math....
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Are there several types of mind-independence?
Mind-independence relates to the famous falling tree nobody sees or hears, but which may still make a sound. We claim that the process is independent of our consciousness, and that therefore the ...
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Why be moral and moral anti realism
If the only reason to be moral is a subjective preference (to be moral), not rational or irrational, then is morality subjective in the sense of mind dependent (as with e.g. expressivism)?
I suspect ...
user71399
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Can Balaguer’s argument we don’t, and couldn’t, have any good argument for Platonism or ficitonalism in math extend to realism/antirealism in general?
Mark Balaguer is a philosopher who advances the position there is one form of mathematical Platonism, that every consistent mathematical object exists, and one form of anti Platonism, ficitonalism. ...
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How can a moral antirealist make moral normative claims?
So as I understand it, normative ethics asked questions like, "what should I do?" whereas metaethics asks... "what makes something good or bad."
What I'm confused about is... if ...
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Could Dummettians use indefinite extendibility to get around Fitch's paradox?
Could Dummettians use indefinite extendibility to get around Fitch's paradox? I was reading over my answer to "Metaphysical indeterminacy and necessity" here on the PhilosophySE, and I ...
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How do we know that the superposition of states in quantum mechanics is a real phenomenon? Does this have philosophical significance? [closed]
As far as I know, we can never directly observe the superposition of states of any particle. How do we then know that it is real in the first place?
We have a theory, which isn’t fully defined in the ...
user62907
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Does Bell’s theorem assume realism? If so, what kind of realism, philosophically?
This is a philosophical question. It deals with the physics that raise this question. I cite the very recent article by Philip Goff in Scientific American which explains its relevance.
Bell’s theorem ...
user62907
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Does astrophysical anti-realism solve the fermi paradox?
This is called Astrophysical Antirealism, and it centers around the
idea that everything that humanity has observed in deep space is
inaccurate or a downright lie.
https://medium.com/@wjackfield/the-...
user66760
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What should I read to deepen my understanding about 'relativism and anti-realism'?
After some discussion, I noticed the philosophical questions I want to explore are mainly ideas that take a relativist and anti-realist point of view. (whether when it comes to morals, or concepts ...
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Resources on the distinction between epistemology in pure and applied mathematics
I'm looking for recommendations for works that present roughly (or at least parts of) the following perspective on epistemology in mathematics. I hope having access to similar perspectives will allow ...
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Reference Request: Defense of the A-priori/A-posteriory distinction against psychological attacks
I was thinking over the concept of a priory reasoning coming from intuition that comes from the development of our intuitions through the duration of our lifes. Therefore Natural Heuristics does no ...
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Naturalism and anti-realism in the philosophy of science
I was surprised by the lack of easily accessed discussion on overlap of these popular philosophical terms / ideas. Are they more or less orthogonal?
As I understand it, ontological naturalism says we ...
user62090
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Canonicity and moral fictionalism
Fictionalism about sets of sentences (or propositions?) has it that the sets in question are not "literally" true. When it comes to such sets, hereafter narratives, normally recognized as ...
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Relational spacetime and simultaneity?
I once asked a similar question but didn't really get the answer or discussion that I was looking for and decided to start clean. Recall that in Galilean (classical) spacetimes its assumed that space-...
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What is the difference between instrumentalism and operationalism?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has the following definitions for these two perspectives on science:
Instrumentalism:
"the view that theories are merely instruments for predicting ...
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A Paradox for Anti-Realism?
Semantic Anti-Realists hold that a claim has a (constructive) proof if the claim is true. I wonder whether this position runs into a version of Yablo's supposedly non-circular version of the liar ...
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Are the Argument From Perspectival Variation and the Argument From Perceptual Relativity one and the same?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains Perspectival Variation as follows:
Perspectival variation is the kind of variation in one's sensory
experiences that normally attends changes in ...
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partial fictionalism about propositions
One theory of propositions is that they're "useful fictions." However, this faces the formidable objection that fictionalism makes it hard to explain how something fictional can tell us about the ...
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Is Nietzsche an anti-realist about moral disagreement?
This question got me thinking:
What is the difference between the Superman and the Ultimateman?
As I understand it, moral anti-realism is the thesis that there are no moral facts outside the ...
user35983
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Realism vs Antirealism...why does it matter?
I have a foundational knowledge of philosophy but Ive never managed to understand the basics of realism vs antirealism debates and why it matters.
Ive read that there are ontological, epistemic, ...
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How does constructive empiricism differ from instrumentalism?
Constructive empiricism is the belief that science aims to give theories which are empirically adequate (i.e. agree with observables), and accepting a theory means believing that it is empirically ...
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Is there a fact of the matter? , a case [of the matter]?
Wittgenstein once said [and may have later recanted] that the world is everything that is the case, the totality of facts not of things, and that that world is determined by those facts, and they're ...
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References for the Realism/Anti-Realism debate in Logic
The concept of anti-realism in logic seems to be an interesting and growing idea.
I'm looking for references (papers, books, authors...) regarding the debate between realism and anti-realism but ...
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