Realism (Philosophy)

The Woes of Scientific Realism

by Jonathan Okeke

Kanu Anthony Ikechukwu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Published in
AFRREV STECH
An International Journal of Science and Technology
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Vol.1 (1) April-July, 2012:32-44

This paper investigated the disagreement between Realists and Anti-realists on the observable and unobservable... more
This paper investigated the disagreement between Realists and Anti-realists on the observable and unobservable distinction in scientific practice. While the realists maintain that machines and gadgets can simulate the human act of perception there-by making all realities under the screen of science observable, the anti-realists or the instrumentalists insist that what cannot be observed with the human senses even if detected with gadgets are not observable. This paper contended against the realist position which says that machines can simulate the human activity of perception. Hence the distinction between what is observable and unobservable is shown to be indisputable.

Black's "Twin Globe" Counterexample

by William Ferraiolo

Oggetti, non domande: la proposta filosofica del Manifesto del nuovo realismo di Maurizio Ferraris

by Guglielmo Feis

Mind as Feeling' or Affective Relations?: A Contribution to the School of Andersonian Realism

by Simon Boag

Boag, S. (2008). 'Mind as feeling' or affective relations? A contribution to the school of Andersonian realism. Theory & Psychology, 18 (4), 505-525.

Andersonian realism is a determinist, empiricist position that acknowledges the important distinction between... more Andersonian realism is a determinist, empiricist position that acknowledges the important distinction between qualities and relations. However, Anderson’s ‘mind as feeling’ thesis, proposing that the mind’s qualities are emotional, is problematic since it fails to account for ‘feelings’ themselves. O’Neil’s (1934) alternative relational account of affects, in conjunction with Maze’s (1983) theory of instinctual drives, provides a coherent platform for developing a comprehensive realist account of affects. In discussing the relation between affects, cognition and motivation, affects are viewed as drive-evaluative phenomena, and ‘feelings’ are known bodily states arising in conjunction with motivationally driven environmental evaluations. The role that affects play in a revised desire/belief model of behaviour explanation is discussed.

A Brief History of Continental Realism

by Lee Braver

Continental Philosophy Review
DOI: 10.1007/s11007-012-9220-2

This paper explains the nature and origin of what I am calling Transgressive Realism, a middle path between realism... more This paper explains the nature and origin of what I am calling Transgressive Realism, a middle path between realism and anti-realism which tries to combine their strengths while avoiding their weaknesses. Kierkegaard created the position by merging Hegel’s insistence that we must have some kind of contact with anything we can call real (thus rejecting noumena), with Kant’s belief that reality fundamentally exceeds our understanding; human reason should not be the criterion of the real. The result is the idea that our most vivid encounters with reality come in experiences that shatter our categories, the way God’s commandment to kill Isaac irreconcilably clashes with the best understanding of ethics we are capable of. I explain the genesis of this idea, and then show it at work in Heidegger and Levinas’ thought. Understanding this position illuminates important aspects of the history of continental philosophy and offers a new perspective on realism.

Between Naturalism and Rationalism: A New Realist Landscape

by Fabio Gironi

A review essay of  Bryant, L., Srnicek, N. and Harman, G. 2011. The Speculative Turn: Continental Realism and Materialism. Melbourne: re.press.

Forthcoming in the Journal of Critical Realism

Philosophie des mathématiques

by Jacques Dubucs

Avec D. Bonnay, in A. Barberousse, D. Bonnay @ M. Cozic (eds.), Précis de Philosophie des Sciences, Paris, Vuibert, 2011

Austrian Logical Realism? Brentano on States of Affairs

by Guillaume Fréchette

DRAFT ONLY, Final version forthcoming in Bonino, Cumpa, Jesson (eds), Defending Realism, Frankfurt, 201*

In the following paper, I will discuss the motives behind Franz Brentano’s judgment contents and the strategies... more In the following paper, I will discuss the motives behind Franz Brentano’s judgment contents and the strategies offered by him to support them, suggesting that most of these strategies – based on his treatment of true negative existential judgments – are not akin to logical realism in spirit. More generally, I would like to suggest in this paper that although there definitely is a realist concern in Austrian philosophy regarding states of affairs, reducing their introduction to a realist concern is misguided. As shown by the case of Brentano, states of affairs were not always introduced in order to answer the question of what makes our assertions true, but rather to provide a psychological account of judgments that would help to distinguish between the two basic classes of acts: presentations and judgments. I will suggest that Brentano’s way of dealing with states of affairs actually shares some similarities with the way nominalists’ strategies concerning states of affairs are sometimes conducted.

Heidegger's Realism in Being and Time

by Gary Williams

Draft only

‘Was Nietzsche a Cognitivist?’

by Kenneth R Westphal

‘Nietzsche’s Sting and the Possibility of Good Philology’.

by Kenneth R Westphal

In what way can considering evolution contribute to a philosophical epistemology?

by Christian Spahn

The identity of photography: Exploring realism in photojournalism

by Siobhan Lyons

Published in the first issue of the Macquarie Matrix Undergraduate Journal

It can be argued that the nature of photography becomes drastically altered, and its identity changes according to the... more It can be argued that the nature of photography becomes drastically altered, and its identity changes according to the uses it is put to. This article will discuss the many aspects of photojournalism that shape and manipulate the current status of photography. Its origin as a means of objective documentation will be critically analysed in relation to its uses in war photography, political agendas and propaganda. The theories of Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, among others, will be drawn on to evaluate the extent to which photography is autonomous, changing and transforming depending on how it is employed. The conclusions drawn from the research show how photography has become a malleable artefact, capable of changing its identity in a post-modern context, and thus posing challenges for our concept of reality.

Review of Lee Braver: A Thing of This World

by Paul Livingston

Continental Philosophy Review 45:1 (2012), pp. 161-70.

The Fourth Estate in the USA and UK: Discourses of truth and power

by Jesse Hearns-Branaman

unpublished PhD thesis

This thesis examines the ways in which political journalists in the USA and UK talk about issues of truth and power as... more This thesis examines the ways in which political journalists in the USA and UK talk about issues of truth and power as it relates to journalism’s role as the Fourth Estate. The theoretical basis comes from a critique of the two major structures underpinning the Fourth Estate, that of epistemology (the study of truth) and ideology (broadly, the study of power and ideas). This involves unpacking and critically examining the ability of news media to convey ‘true’ information and the ideological formations in which the news media production practice is situated. The epistemological theories of Realism, Pragmatism, Antirealism and Hyperrealism will first be elucidated in an in-depth theoretical discussion, focusing on the contributions of Baudrillard. Four major theories of ideology, that of personal ideological bias, chaos, control, and ideology as fetishistic disavowal will be examined, this time focusing on the work of Žižek.
This theoretical discussion is complimented by an analysis of interview questions relating to epistemological concerns and to ideology. The empirical data consists of twenty interviews conducted with political correspondents in the USA and UK. A version of critical discourse analysis is used to examine the ways in which journalists talk about the issues raised by the questions, what is termed their ‘discursive strategies.’ The categories for analysis are grounded in the discursive strategies used by the journalists themselves, examined to elaborate not simply the explicit content, but the deeper implicit meanings inherent in the way they answer.
This provided both an original theoretical discussion and an original set of empirically-derived data. It also allows us to further understand the role of journalism as the Fourth Estate, the types of ‘truth’ it brings to us, the types of ideologies that underpin the news production process via news media professionals, and how the system is maintained despite its inherent contradictions.

Los límites de la construcción

by Hernán Miguel

Monografía de curso con el Dr. León Olivé.

Describiré brevemente el problema de la subdeterminación y el de la carga teórica. Luego presentaré, también de... more Describiré brevemente el problema de la subdeterminación y el de la carga teórica. Luego presentaré, también de manera breve, algunas posiciones del constructivismo que parecen surgir naturalmente del análisis anterior. Como respuesta intentaré mostrar que no es posible una construcción que no tenga en cuenta cierto componente de existencia autónoma que forma parte en el proceso de construcción de nuestra imagen del mundo. Para ello me centraré en el análisis de las fallas predictivas y cuáles factores podrían haber sido responsables de tal fracaso. Finalmente haré un comentario sobre la racionalidad del cambio científico sobre la base del análisis realizado.

Quine on Objects: Realism or Anti-Realism?

by Antti Keskinen

Pre-publication version of a paper forthcoming in Theoria 2012.

W.V. Quine describes himself as a "robust realist" about physical objects in the external world. This... more W.V. Quine describes himself as a "robust realist" about physical objects in the external world. This realism about objects is due to Quine's naturalism. On the other hand, Quine's naturalistic epistemology involves a conception of objects as posits that we introduce in our theories about the world. This conception of objects can be seen as anti-realist rather than realist. In this paper, I discuss the questions whether there is a tension between Quine's realism and his epistemological conception of objects, and how Quine's conception of objects should be understood if he is also to be regarded as a realist. I also address the question whether Quine should be placed in the realist or the anti-realist side of the current realism debate. I argue that Quine's conception of objects as posits is a general account of the nature objects, and that this account does not conflict with Quine's realism as long as this realism is properly understood. I also argue that Quine cannot be placed on either side of the contemporary realism debate, since his realism is not metaphysical realism and his conception of objects is not an anti-realist doctrine according to which objects would be less than real.

Verità e Autorità (Truth and Authority)

by Carla Bagnoli

forthcoming SPAZIO FILOSOFICO 2O12 N. 4 "Sofisti"

Political constructivists (such as John Rawls), and pluralists (such as Bernard Williams) refrain from using truth in... more Political constructivists (such as John Rawls), and pluralists (such as Bernard Williams) refrain from using truth in political bargains and moral disagreements. They agree with relativists about the “polemical conception of truth”, which takes moral truths to enjoy only a local sort of normativity. Against rationalists they hold that one cannot appeal to truths as a device for coordination in contexts marked by value-pluralism. Such an appeal is bound to be dogmatic and arbitrary because it lacks unrestricted authority. By contrast, Kantian-constructivism adopts a conception of truth as determined by an ideal agreement. It argues that normative truths are not fixed by facts that are independent of the practical standpoint, but they are constituted by what agents would agree to under some specified conditions of choice. By developing this contrast, this paper refocuses the debate on the relation between truth and authority, rather than on the realists/antirealists divide.

Hearing Color: Radical Pluralistic Realism and SSDs

by Brian Glenney

with Zachary Capalbo

Pluralistic Realism argues that what makes color real is both its ecological significance for a particular species and... more Pluralistic Realism argues that what makes color real is both its ecological significance for a particular species and the evolutionary adapted visual system which processes it. (Matthen 2005) We argue for a more radical position, that real color is dependent only on what a species determines as ecologically relevant, regardless of visual system. “Radical Pluralistic Realism” argues that real color content is processed by adaptive technologies such as Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs)—devices that transform information accessible by one sensory modality , like vision, into another, like audition. We describe a color sonification SSD that translates colors into sounds and argue that subjects wearing this device actually hear color because they process real color content. even though they do not experience it as such.

The phenomenology of union decision-making: A new way to enquire into reality.

by Robert Shaw

Ashish Malik & Robert Shaw (2011) The  phenomenology of union decision-making: A new way to enquire into reality. Proceedings of the ANZAM conference, Wellington, New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management. 7 December 2011.

This paper inaugurates a discussion about the phenomenology of union decision-making. Phenomenology provides a new... more This paper inaugurates a discussion about the phenomenology of union decision-making. Phenomenology provides a new lens that may enable us to gain penetrating insights into how unions function in the fractious world of human resources management. The present paper is preliminary to any fieldwork that may be undertaken. Its main purposes are to identify theory that could be the foundation of further practical work, relate recent work in the phenomenology of management to union practices and to propose directions of enquiry. The relevant theory is that of Edmund Husserl who provides us with a practical method of enquiry into the real world of human resource practice. Husserl’s work has already been applied in relation to local government functioning and some of the findings there appear relevant to the present enquiry. In particular, the nature and role of plebiscites.