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Fictionalism
Fictionalism is a view in philosophy that posits that statements appearing to be descriptions of the world should not be construed as such, but should instead be understood as cases of "make believe", thus allowing individuals to treat something as literally true (a "useful fiction"). Concept Fictionalism consists in at least the following three theses: # Claims made within the domain of discourse are taken to be truth-apt; that is, true or false. # The domain of discourse is to be interpreted at face value—not reduced to meaning something else. # The aim of discourse in any given domain is not truth, but some other virtue(s) (e.g., simplicity, explanatory scope). Two important strands of fictionalism are: modal fictionalism developed by Gideon Rosen, which states that possible worlds, regardless of whether they exist or not, may be a part of a useful discourse, and mathematical fictionalism advocated by Hartry Field. Modal fictionalism is recognized as further refinement ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Fictionalism
Modal fictionalism is a term used in philosophy, and more specifically in the metaphysics of modality, to describe the position that holds that modality can be analysed in terms of a fiction about possible world A possible world is a complete and consistent way the world is or could have been. Possible worlds are widely used as a formal device in logic, philosophy, and linguistics in order to provide a semantics for intensional and modal logic. Their met ...s. The theory comes in two versions: Strong and Timid. Both positions were first exposed by Gideon Rosen starting from 1990. Types Modal fictionalism is a philosophical perspective that centers on the assertion that possible worlds are fictional entities. This perspective seeks to explain our apparent commitment to possible worlds in a manner akin to our engagement with other fictional constructs, such as ideal gases or frictionless surfaces. One of the pioneering works in this field was presented by Rosen in 1990, wherein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Color Fictionalism
The philosophy of color is a subset of the philosophy of perception that is concerned with the nature of the perceptual experience of color. Any explicit account of color perception requires a commitment to one of a variety of ontological or metaphysical views, distinguishing namely between externalism/internalism, which relate respectively to color realism, the view that colors are physical properties that objects possess, and color fictionalism, the view that colors possess no such physical properties. History Philosophical concerns about the nature of color can be traced back at least as far as Anaxagoras (5th century BCE), who favoured color realism in his sophism: "Snow is frozen water. But water is dark in color. Therefore, snow is dark in color." Anaxagoras claimed that our perception deviated from the truth "...owing to the feebleness f the senses" Later, Democritus (circa 400 BCE) would say, "By convention sweet, by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Vaihinger
Hans Vaihinger (; ; September 25, 1852 – December 18, 1933) was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his ''Die Philosophie des Als Ob'' ('' The Philosophy of 'As if'''), published in 1911 although its statement of basic principles had been written more than thirty years earlier. Early life and educationy Vaihinger was born in Nehren, Württemberg, Germany, near Tübingen, and raised in what he described as a "very religious atmosphere". He was educated at the University of Tübingen (the Tübinger Stift), Leipzig University, and the University of Berlin. Career Vaihinger became a tutor and later a philosophy professor at the University of Strasbourg. In 1884 he moved to the University of Halle, where from 1892 he was a full professor. Personal life and death By 1900 Vaihinger’s health had deteriorated. His health, especially his failing eyesight, forced Vaihinger to step down from his professorship. In 1926 Vaihinger suffered complete blindness. V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy Of Mathematics
Philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of mathematics and its relationship to other areas of philosophy, particularly epistemology and metaphysics. Central questions posed include whether or not mathematical objects are purely abstract entities or are in some way concrete, and in what the relationship such objects have with physical reality consists. Major themes that are dealt with in philosophy of mathematics include: *''Reality'': The question is whether mathematics is a pure product of human mind or whether it has some reality by itself. *''Logic and rigor'' *''Relationship with physical reality'' *''Relationship with science'' *''Relationship with applications'' *''Mathematical truth'' *''Nature as human activity'' (science, the arts, art, game, or all together) Major themes Reality Logic and rigor Mathematical reasoning requires Mathematical rigor, rigor. This means that the definitions must be absolutely unambiguous and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gideon Rosen
Gideon Rosen (born 1963) is an American philosopher. He is a Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics. Education and career Rosen graduated from Columbia University in 1984 and obtained his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1992, under the supervision of Paul Benacerraf. He taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for several years before joining the Princeton faculty in 1993. He has served as chair of Princeton's Council of the Humanities and director of the Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024. Philosophical work In 1990 Rosen introduced modal fictionalism, a popular position on the ontological status of possible worlds. He is the co-author of ''A Subject with No Object'' (Oxford University Press, 1997), a contribution to the philosophy of mathematics written with Princeton colleague John P. Burgess. His r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Joyce (philosopher)
Richard Joyce (born 1966) is a British-Australian-New Zealand philosopher, known for his contributions to the fields of meta-ethics and moral psychology. Joyce was born in England and raised in New Zealand. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 1998 (studying under Gilbert Harman). He has held positions at the University of Sheffield, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney. Since 2010 he has been a Professor of Philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington. Ideas ;Moral error theory To hold an error theory about morality is to endorse a kind of radical moral skepticism Moral skepticism (or moral scepticism in British English) is a class of meta-ethical theories all members of which entail that no one has any moral knowledge. Many moral skeptics also make the stronger, modal claim that moral knowledge is i ...—a skepticism analogous to atheism in the religious domain. The atheist thinks that religious utterances, such as "God love ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quietism (philosophy)
Quietism in philosophy sees the role of philosophy as broadly therapeutic or remedial. Quietist philosophers believe that philosophy has no positive thesis to contribute; rather, it defuses confusions in the linguistic and conceptual frameworks of other subjects, including non-quietist philosophy. For quietists, advancing knowledge or settling debates (particularly those between realists and non-realists) is not the job of philosophy, rather philosophy should liberate the mind by diagnosing confusing concepts. Status within philosophy Crispin Wright said that "Quietism is the view that significant metaphysical debate is impossible." It has been described as "the view or stance that entails avoidance of substantive philosophical theorizing and is usually associated with certain forms of skepticism, pragmatism, and minimalism about truth. More particularly, it is opposed to putting forth positive theses and developing constructive arguments." Quietism by its nature is not a ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kendall Walton
Kendall Lewis Walton (born 1939) is an American philosopher, the Emeritus Charles Stevenson Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. His work mainly deals with theoretical questions about the arts and issues of philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. His book ''Mimesis as Make Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts'' develops a theory of make-believe and uses it to understand the nature and varieties of representation in the arts. He has also developed an account of photography as transparent, defending the idea that we see through photographs, much as we see through telescopes or mirrors, and written extensively on pictorial representation, fiction and the emotions, the ontological status of fictional entities, the aesthetics of music, metaphor, and aesthetic value. Education and career Walton studied as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, originally pursuing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its methods and assumptions. Historically, many of the individual sciences, such as physics and psychology, formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western philosophy, Western, Islamic philosophy, Arabic–Persian, Indian philosophy, Indian, and Chinese philosophy. Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation. Indian philosophy combines the Spirituality, spiritual problem of how to reach Enlightenment in Buddhism, enlighten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophical Methodology
Philosophical methodology encompasses the methods used to philosophize and the study of these methods. Methods of philosophy are procedures for conducting research, creating new theories, and selecting between competing theories. In addition to the description of methods, philosophical methodology also compares and evaluates them. Philosophers have employed a great variety of methods. Methodological skepticism tries to find principles that cannot be doubted. The geometrical method deduces theorems from self-evident axioms. The phenomenological method describes first-person experience. Verificationists study the conditions of empirical verification of sentences to determine their meaning. Conceptual analysis decomposes concepts into fundamental constituents. Common-sense philosophers use widely held beliefs as their starting point of inquiry, whereas ordinary language philosophers extract philosophical insights from ordinary language. Intuition-based methods, like thought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
