Experience and beyond : the outline of a Darwinian metaphysics
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Experience and beyond : the outline of a Darwinian metaphysics
Palgrave Macmillan, c2016
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-342) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book presents
a persuasive argument in favour of evolutionary naturalism and outlines what
such a stance means for our capacity of observation and understanding reality.
The author discusses how our capacity of knowledge is adapted to handle
sensory information about the environment in the light of Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution. The implication of this is that much of our thinking in
science and philosophy that goes beyond our immediate experience rests on
abstractions and hypostatization. This book rejects the possibility of having
any knowledge of reality as it is in itself, while not denying that our
capacity of conceptual abstractions is of great benefit for our survival.
Table of Contents
On Evolutionary Naturalism
Contents
Preface
1 Evolutionary Naturalism
The manifest image
The scientific image
Kant's metaphysical dualism
Evolutionary epistemology
2 Evolution and Human Cognition
The Darwinian legacy
Setting the legacy straight
A fallacy of naturalization
Intention and innate dispositions
3 Sensation, Perception, and Observation
Perception as belief acquisition
From perception to observation
Theory-ladenness
Instrumental observation
Observability
4 Theory and Reality
Forms of realism
Conceptual frameworks and external commitments
Scientific realism
The success argument
Constructive empiricism
Structural realism
The failure of representationalism
5 Truth, Language, and Objectivity
What is truth?
Truth and meaning
Non-realism concerning Truth
A naturalized notion of truth
Semantics and ontology
6 Abstraction and Reification
Common sense and externality
What makes an entity abstract?
Abstract objects and abstracted concepts
Why did abstracted concepts evolve?
7 In Defence of Nominalism
Concrete, artificial, and nominal particulars
Universals or particulars
Conceptualism
8 Space, Time, and Space-time
Kant on space and time
The existence of space
The existence of time
Space-time substantivalism
Space-time relationism 279
Space-time as an abstracted concept
Are space and time invented or discovered?
9 Causality and Contrafactuality
The concept
Regularity
Modality
10 Human Evolution and Mathematical Physics
Mathematics and representational knowledge
Mathematics - the language of quantities
Possible worlds, many worlds and multiverses
The Copenhagen interpretation: instrumentalism versus
representationalism
11 Conclusion
Bibliography
by "Nielsen BookData"
