Search results for "Philosophical realism"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Reality, Realism and Mimesis
1998
In any discussion of a literary work, ‘reality’ has no objective existence. It cannot be proven through scientific methods. What can be considered as ‘realistic’ is what is believable. Far from being a mere replica in a mirror, fictional reality is only validated by the readers’ acceptance of artistic illusion.
How (Not) to Write the History of Pragmatist Philosophy of Science?
2008
This survey article discusses the pragmatist tradition in twentieth century philosophy of science. Pragmatism, originating with Charles Peirce's writings on the pragmatic maxim in the 1870s, is a background both for scientific realism and, via the views of William James and John Dewey, for the relativist and/or constructivist forms of neopragmatism that have often been seen as challenging the very ideas of scientific rationality and objectivity. The paper shows how the issue of realism arises in pragmatist philosophy of science and how some pragmatists, classical and modern, have attempted to deal with it. Various dimensions of the realism dispute are thus discussed, especially realism as c…
Realism, metamathematics, and the unpublished essays
1995
This initial chapter is divided into two sections. The first is devoted to a brief exposition of the intuitive essence and the philosophical motivation of Godel’s main metamathematical results, namely his completeness theorem for elementary logic (1930) and his incompleteness theorems for arithmetic (1931). Thereafter some discussion of the different ways to confront the relationship between those results and Godel’s philosophical realism in logic and mathematics is offered. Thus, mathematical realism will be successively regarded as (i) a philosophical consequence of those results; (ii) a heuristic principle which leads to them; (iii) a philosophical hypothesis which is “verified” by them.…
Pragmatist Perspectives on Theological and Religious Realism
2014
This essay first applies the general issue of realism vs. antirealism to theology and the philosophy of religion, distinguishing between several different ‘levels’ of the realism dispute in this context. A pragmatic approach to the problem of realism regarding religion and theology is sketched and tentatively defended. The similarities and differences of scientific realism, on the one hand, and religious and/or theological realism, on the other hand, are thereby also illuminated. The concept of recognition is shown to be crucially relevant to the issue of realism especially in its pragmatist articulation.