Abstract
This part consists of two sections. Section A deals with direct access to reality, or the question of how representations could ever match reality. The conclusion arrived at in section A is that there is no access to reality that is not mediated by concepts, that is, conceptually relative. Section B starts its argument from that conclusion, and investigates the consequences of conceptual relativism. Different strategies in coping with the problem of relativism are assessed. The cognitivist strategy appears to be the most promising. Yet, in the final chapter, “Ultimate Relativism”, we argue that not only is our access to reality conceptually mediated, but in addition, the basis of mediation imposes a severe restriction on how the reality is conceptualized. Section A will introduce several classic and modern philosophers to the reader, for example John Locke, George Berkeley, Bertrand Russell, and William James, some of whose ideas were already presented in Part II.
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Sajama, S., Vihjanen, S. (1993). Relativism and Cognitivism. In: Kamppinen, M. (eds) Consciousness, Cognitive Schemata, and Relativism. Studies in Cognitive Systems, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1141-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1141-8_4
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