Universals and Abstract Entities
One of the ancient problems of metaphysics is about whether universals exist. Universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. For instance, two pieces of chalk have in common a quality of color, namely “whiteness”. There are many philosophical positions regarding universals. The main contemporary ones are: Realism which postulates that […]
Realists vs Antirealists
Realism is being understood as the view that regardless of how we think of things they are what they are. Metaphysical realism is the view that there is a mind-independent reality. Contrary to realism, anti-realism postulates that the physical world does not exist outside the mind. There is no such thing as mind-independent reality or […]
Carnap on meaning and meaningfulness
Carnap wants to diminish bad metaphysics influence, so he rejects metaphysical terms which are meaningless and non-verifiable. Metaphysical beliefs are derived neither by logic nor by empirical evidences: Aesthetics – this painting is better than.. Ethics – X ought to do Y, Religion – God exists. These propositions are meaningless as they are non-verifiable. According […]
Quine on naturalized epistemology
Quine argues that the position of the dominant epistemology has failed and we need to reconstruct the traditional view in another way. We should replace epistemology with psychology, because epistemology is asking wrong questions. Instead of “How ought we to arrive at our beliefs?”, the main question should be “How do we arrive at our […]