Stove's discovery of the worst argument in the world
Philosophy 77 (4):615-624 (2002)
Abstract
The winning entry in David Stove's Competition to Find the Worst Argument in the World was: “We can know things only as they are related to us/insofar as they fall under our conceptual schemes, etc., so, we cannot know things as they are in themselves.” That argument underpins many recent relativisms, including postmodernism, post-Kuhnian sociological philosophy of science, cultural relativism, sociobiological versions of ethical relativism, and so on. All such arguments have the same form as ‘We have eyes, therefore we cannot see’, and are equally invalid.DOI
10.1017/s0031819102000487
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Citations of this work
Beyond concepts: Ontology as reality representation.Barry Smith - 2004 - In Achille C. Varzi & Laure Vieu (eds.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS). pp. 1-12.
Introduction: what is ontology for.Katherine Munn - 2008 - In Munn Katherine & Smith Barry (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 7-19.
David Stove (1927-1994), Sydney philosopher and master of argument: life and work.James Franklin - 2021 - Sydney Realist 43:1-8.
Traditional Catholic philosophy: baby and bathwater.James Franklin - 2006 - In Michael Whelan (ed.), Issues for Church and Society in Australia. Sydney, Australia: St Pauls. pp. 15-32.
References found in this work
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.Jonathan Dancy (ed.) - 1998 - Oxford University Press.
The social theory of truth.P. H. Partridge - 1936 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 14 (3):161 – 175.
The social theory of truth.P. H. Partridge - 1936 - Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy 14 (3):161-175.
