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 an ...

, a point of view is a specific attitude or manner through which a person thinks about something. This figurative usage of the expression dates back to 1730. In this meaning, the usage is synonymous with one of the meanings of the term perspectiveCampos, Gutiérrez, p. 2 (also epistemic perspective). The concept of the "point of view" is highly multifunctional and ambiguous. Many things may be judged from certain personal, traditional or moral points of view (as in "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"). Our knowledge about reality is often relative to a certain point of view. Vázquez Campos and Manuel Liz Gutierrez suggested to analyse the concept of "point of view" using two approaches: one based on the concept of "propositional attitudes", the other on the concepts of "location" and "access".

Analysis

Margarita Vázquez Campos and Antonio Manuel Liz Gutiérrez in their work, "The Notion of Point of View", give a comprehensive analysis of the structure of the concept. They point out that despite being crucial in many discourses, the notion has not been adequately analyzed, though some important works do exist. They mention that early classical Greek philosophers, starting from

Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (; ; fl. late sixth or early fifth century BC) was a Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic ancient Greece, Greek philosopher from Velia, Elea in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy). Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Veli ...

and Heraclitus discussed the relation between "appearance" and reality, i.e., how our points of view are connected with reality. They specifically point out

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

's ''

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and Citation, cited as TLP) is the only book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that was published during his lifetime. The project had a broad goal ...

''. They consider Wittgenstein's theory of "pictures" or "models" (Wittgenstein used the German word ''Bild'', which means both "picture" and "model") as an illustration of the relationship between points of view and reality.

Propositional attitudes

The internal structure of a point of view may be analysed similarly to the concept of a propositional attitude. A propositional attitude is an attitude, i.e., a mental state held by an agent toward a

proposition A proposition is a statement that can be either true or false. It is a central concept in the philosophy of language, semantics, logic, and related fields. Propositions are the object s denoted by declarative sentences; for example, "The sky ...

. Examples of such attitudes are "to believe in something", "to desire something", "to guess something", "to remember something", etc. Vazques Campos and Gutierrez suggest that points of view may be analyzed as structured sets of propositional attitudes. The authors draw on Christopher Peacocke's ''Sense and Content''. Within this approach one may carry out ontological classification of various distinctions, such as individual vs. collective points of view, personal vs. non-personal, non-conceptual vs. conceptual, etc.Manuel Liz & Margarita Vázquez
"Two approaches to the notion of Point of View"
extended abstract for
''14th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science''
, July 19–26, 2011 (retrieved August 31, 2015)

Location and access

Whereas propositional attitudes approach to analyze points of view internally, the "location/access" approach analyzes points of view externally, by their role. The term "access" refers to the statement of Liz Gutierrez that "points of views, or perspectives, are ways of having access to the world and to ourselves", and the term "location" is in reference to the provided quotation of Jon Moline that points of view are "ways of viewing things and events from certain locations". Moline rejects the notion that points of view are reducible to some rules based on some theories, maxims or dogmas. Moline considers the concept of "location" in two ways: in a direct way as a vantage point, and in an extended way, the way how a given vantage point provides a perspective, i.e., influences the perception.Moline, Jon, "On Points of View", ''American Philosophical Quarterly'', 1968, vol. 5, 191–298. (as cited by Manuel Liz) This approach may address

epistemological Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...

issues, such as relativism, existence of the absolute point of view, compatibility of points of view (including " faultless disagreement"), possibility of a point of view without a bearer, etc.

Notes

References

*Margarita Vázquez Campos, Antonio Manuel Liz Gutiérrez
"The Notion of Point of View"
in: ''Temporal Points of View: Subjective and Objective Aspects'', Springer, 2015, *Manuel Liz
"Models and Points of View: The Analysis of the Notion of Point of View"
in: Lorenzo Magnani (ed.), ''Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology: Theoretical and Cognitive Issues'', Springer Science & Business Media, 2013,

External links

* * {{World view A priori Abstraction Belief Bias Cognitive science Communication Concepts in epistemology Conceptual modelling Mental processes Social ontology Perception Phenomenology Concepts in the philosophy of mind Propositional attitudes Psychological attitude Subjective experience