Experience and Beyond (eBook)

The Outline of A Darwinian Metaphysics

Jan Faye (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2016 | 1st ed. 2016
XV, 350 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-31077-0 (ISBN)

Infos

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. 

Jan Faye teaches epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has published extensively within these areas in Danish as well as English. Some of his latest books include After Postmodernism (2012) and The Nature of Scientific Thinking (2014).

Inhalt

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 279Space-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      

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.9.2016
• Zusatzinfo: XV, 350 p.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Schlagworte: congnitive science • Darwin • Epistemology • Evolution • Metaphysics • Science
• ISBN-10: 3-319-31077-1 / 3319310771
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-31077-0 / 9783319310770