anti-realists?
david fass
Can anyone recommend a book that presents the case for
anti-realism well? Who are (or were) the key anti-realist
thinkers?
Thanks.
-- Dave
Aaron-Dirk Boyden
>
> Can anyone recommend a book that presents the case for
> anti-realism well? Who are (or were) the key anti-realist
> thinkers?
Anti-realist about what? Theoretical entities in science? Platonic
objects in mathematics? Ethical properties? Everything?
I think Bas van Fraassen's _The Scientific Image_ is perhaps the best
place to start looking at scientific anti-realism. Lots of people are
mathematical anti-realists, and it's hard to think of anyone who stands
out particularly. In ethics, I'm not up on the latest work; Gilbert
Harman's _The Nature of Morality_ (if I even remember the title
correctly) is pretty old and so quite possibly dated, but definitely an
interesting work. For global anti-realism, the person to look at is
definitely Crispin Wright, if you can bear his impenetrable prose. He's
got at least a couple of books dealing primarily with this subject.
--
---
Aaron Boyden
"It is wrong always, everywhere and for anyone, to believe
anything upon insufficient evidence." W. K. Clifford
Tom Norback
david fass wrote in message <379DFD71...@mathworks.com>...
>
>Can anyone recommend a book that presents the case for
>anti-realism well? Who are (or were) the key anti-realist
>thinkers?
>
>
>-- Dave
Reality is somebody's agenda. An anti-realist is anyone who disagrees.
Tom Norback
Gary H. Merrill
Right on bro' !!! Don't knuckle under to the man!! Reality is an
illusion. Opiate of the masses. And so on.
-- Gary Merrill
Gary H. Merrill
david fass wrote:
>
> Can anyone recommend a book that presents the case for
> anti-realism well? Who are (or were) the key anti-realist
> thinkers?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -- Dave
Bas Van Fraassen. I haven't read his recent stuff (since I got out of
the philosophy game and became an engineer), but we used to communicate
quite a bit since we have pretty much the same view. The easiest thing
would be to look at a few of his books. Otherwise I could post a short
bibliography of his and mine, but it would be about 15 years old at this
point.
Also, Arthur Fine tells me he has a nice little book in which he
discusses various realist/anti-realist issues. I also haven't read it,
but as I recall it is pretty inexpensive ($20?). And Arthur is a sharp
guy. I think he tends more towards a realist view, but not a simplistic
one. Check amazon.com.
-- Gary Merrill
david fass
Amazon.com turns up a Fine book with the title "The Shaky Game :
Einstein, Realism, and the Quantum Theory." Do you think that's
the right one?
Thanks.
-- Dave
Tom Norback
Gary H. Merrill wrote in message <379E4340...@mindspring.com>...
>> >anti-realism well? Who are (or were) the key anti-realist
>> >thinkers?
>> >
>> >Thanks.
>> >
>> >-- Dave
>>
>>
>> Tom Norback
>
>Right on bro' !!! Don't knuckle under to the man!! Reality is an
>illusion. Opiate of the masses. And so on.
>
>-- Gary Merrill
Presumably this was meant as derision. If so then it is a little too close
to racism for my taste. Or maybe you meant people to understand "right on
bro" and "the man" as a comic allusion not to any specific group of people,
just people you don't take seriously. Either way I thank you for
demonstrating my point.
Tom Norback
Gary H. Merrill
Tom Norback wrote:
> Presumably this was meant as derision. If so then it is a little too close
> to racism for my taste. Or maybe you meant people to understand "right on
> bro" and "the man" as a comic allusion not to any specific group of people,
> just people you don't take seriously. Either way I thank you for
> demonstrating my point.
Well, I can't imagine how it's construed as racism (which race, by the
way?), but that's up to you. It was intended as humor. I was there in
the 60s and that was the rhetoric. Glad to see you bringing back the
old sentiments. But perhaps you take yourself just a bit too seriously.
And yes, I don't take you seriously.
-- Gary Merrill
Gary H. Merrill
david fass wrote:
>
> Thanks. I'll check out Van Fraassen strait away.
>
> Amazon.com turns up a Fine book with the title "The Shaky Game :
> Einstein, Realism, and the Quantum Theory." Do you think that's
> the right one?
I think that's it. Arthur (who was my wife's dissertation advisor!)
wouldn't send me a free copy. The paperback is $17.95.
-- Gary
X
<snip>
> >Right on bro' !!! Don't knuckle under to the man!! Reality is an
> >illusion. Opiate of the masses. And so on.
<snip>
> Presumably this was meant as derision. If so then it is a little too close
> to racism for my taste. Or maybe you meant people to understand "right on
> bro" and "the man" as a comic allusion not to any specific group of people,
> just people you don't take seriously. Either way I thank you for
> demonstrating my point.
pratt ...