· 2020· Book chapter
The Many Faces of Realism
- 402citations
- 2020year
Short summary
This paper argues that traditional scientific realism, inherited from the 17th century, presents a flawed worldview, and proposes pragmatic realism as a viable alternative, particularly for understanding ethical concepts like equality.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Traditional scientific realism, originating in the 17th century, is presented as a flawed philosophical framework.
- The issues with this 'Objectivist' worldview run deeper than surface-level phenomena like 'sense data'.
- Pragmatic realism is proposed as a solution, avoiding both extreme relativism and naive common sense.
- The concept of pragmatic realism is explored through ethical examples, focusing on the value of equality.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
In appealing to the commonsense feeling, Realism reminds the author of the Seducer in the old-fashioned melodrama. The kind of scientific realism we have inherited from the seventeenth century has not lost all its prestige even yet, but it has saddled us with a disastrous picture of the world. The author suggests that the problem with the "Objectivist" picture of the world lies deeper than the postulation of "sense data"; sense data are, so to speak, the visible symptoms of a systemic disease, like the pock marks in the case of smallpox. If seventeenth-century Objectivism has led twentieth-century philosophy into a blind alley, the solution is neither to fall into extreme relativism, as French philosophy has been doing, nor to deny our commonsense realism. The chapter illustrates the standpoint of pragmatic realism in ethics by taking a look at some of our moral images, and particularly at the ones that underlie the central democratic value of equality.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2020 · DOI ↗
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Field: History and Philosophy of Science
History and Philosophy of ScienceArts and Humanities