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612-822-4611
Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism

Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism

Paperback

Series: Toronto Studies in Philosophy

Philosophy

ISBN10: 1442628227
ISBN13: 9781442628229
Publisher: Univ Of Toronto Pr
Published: Jul 9 2014
Pages: 356
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.89 Width: 5.96 Depth: 9.28
Language: English

Chasing Reality deals with the controversies over the reality of the external world. Distinguished philosopher Mario Bunge offers an extended defence of realism, a critique of various forms of contemporary anti-realism, and a sketch of his own version of realism, namely hylorealism. Bunge examines the main varieties of antirealism - Berkeley's, Hume's, and Kant's; positivism, phenomenology, and constructivism - and argues that all of these in fact hinder scientific research.

Bunge's realist contention is that genuine explanations in the sciences appeal to causal laws and mechanisms that are not directly observable, rather than simply to empirical generalisations. Genuine science, in his view, is objective even when it deals with subjective phenomena such as feelings of fear. This work defends a realist view of universals, kinds, possibilities, and dispositions, while rejecting contemporary accounts of these that are couched in terms of modal logic and 'possible worlds.'

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Philosophy