Reality and Representation
David Papineau(Author)
Blackwell Publishers
Published on 12. December 1991
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-0-631-17552-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book defends realism from a naturalistic perspective. Criticizing the view of philosophers such as Hilary Putnam, Michael Dummett and Donald Davidson, the author argues that representation is a natural, biological phenomenon, which needs to be analyzed in teleological terms, and he shows that such an analysis implies that reality and human judgement are conceptually quite independent of each other. David Papineau explains how it is possible for human beliefs to be justified as representations of reality. He then argues that humans can avoid error, and justify their beliefs, by taking practical steps to ensure that their various perceptual and inferential habits are reliable for truth. "Reality and Representation" is primarily concerned with judgements about the natural world, but it also attends to the problems of moral, mathematical, and logical truth, and offers special non-realist theories of these kinds of knowledge. It also contains discussion of linguistic meaning, perception, the nature of mental states, induction and the relevance of history of science to epistemology.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
412 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-631-17552-0 (9780631175520)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Realism and anti-realism; an argument for anti-realism of belief; belief and representation; the teleological theory of representation; the possibility of error; universal rationality; naturalized epistemology; naturalized realism; inferential processes; relativism, history and scepticism.