"Ontological and conceptual relativity and the self"
In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford University Press (2003)
| Abstract | This chapter takes up, in six sections, issues of realism and of ontological and conceptual relativity. Section 1 briefly lays out the kind of absolutist realism of interest in what follows. Section 2 considers arguments against ordinary commonsense entities such as bodies, and for the view that subjects enjoy a superior ontological position. No such argument is found persuasive. I find no good argument against ordinary bodies or other common-sense entities, nor any good argument that subjects enjoy any ontological superiority. Section 3 lays out three options in ontology, opts for a kind of conceptual relativism, and takes up three problems for the proposed view. Section 4 then offers a compromise position based on a kind of existential relativity meant to accommodate our most settled beliefs about what there is, while retaining a fundamentally realist and objectivist ontology. The main argument of that section relies on a distinction between (a) semantical relativity and (b) ontological relativity. Section 5 defends my use of the semantical-ontological distinction against objections to it in the recent literature. Section 6, in conclusion, takes up arguments for the view that, as subjects of consciousness and thought, we must after all occupy a special ontological position in objective reality, one whose status remains mysterious. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links | This entry has no external links. Add one. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesMichael Tye (2009). Representationalist Theories of Consciousness. In B. McLaughlin & A. Beckermann (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press.
Amie L. Thomasson (2009). The Easy Approach to Ontology. Axiomathes 19 (1).
Robert T. Lehe (1998). Realism and Reality. Journal of Philosophical Research 23:219-237.
Antonio Dieguez (2012). Kitcher's Modest Realism: The Reconceptualization of Scientific Objectivity. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 101 (1):141-169.
Yuval Steinitz (1994). Contradictions Are Ontological Arguments. Religious Studies 30 (4):505 - 509.
Willard Orman Quinvane (1996). Ontological Relativity. In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. Columbia University Press.
Thomas Bartelborth (1993). Hierarchy Versus Holism: A Structuralist View on General Relativity. Erkenntnis 39 (3):383 - 412.
Uriah Kriegel (2011). Two Defenses of Common-Sense Ontology. Dialectica 65 (2):177-204.
Analytics
Monthly downloads
Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
|
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads0Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
