Ontological Realism and the Later Wittgenstein in advance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Humphries ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Realism

A Functional Approach to Ontology

Metaphysica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Gan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Conceptual Scheme ◽  
Ontological Realism

Abstract There are two ways of approaching an ontological debate: ontological realism recommends that metaphysicians seek to discover deep ontological facts of the matter, while ontological anti-realism denies that there are such facts; both views sometimes run into difficulties. This paper suggests an approach to ontology that begins with conceptual analysis and takes the results of that analysis as a guide for which metaontological view to hold. It is argued that in some cases, the functions for which we employ a part of our conceptual scheme might give us reasons to posit ontological facts regarding certain objects. The proposed approach recommends ontological realism about an object just in case our conceptual scheme gives us reason to. This yields a mixed overall metaontological view that adopts ontological realism to some issues and ontological anti-realism to others, and that avoids the difficulties that typically arise for the two views.

A Heretical Student in the Schopenhauerian School

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-69
Author(s):  
Anthony K. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Will To Power ◽  
Real Thing ◽  
Ontological Realism ◽  
The World ◽  
Realist Ontology

Abstract The Schopenhauer-Schule was a group of original and diverse thinkers working in the wake of a common inspiration. This paper elucidates Nietzsche’s relationship with these thinkers specifically as concerns their intertwined theories of will. It shows that despite his efforts to suppress and ridicule them, Nietzsche was influenced by the Schopenhauer-Schule and adopted several of their alterations to Schopenhauer. But it will also show that Nietzsche was a heretical member of this school in the sense that his theory of will was not only different from theirs but also subversive. Whereas each member of the Schopenhauer-Schule posits a realist ontology of will, Nietzsche’s perspectivism undercuts the possibility of their ontological realism and puts in its place a semiotical system of expression. As a result of this contextualized framework, Nietzsche’s will to power is revealed, not as an intended reference to a real “thing” in the world, but as a symbol that expresses his perspective about an unknowable reality.

Boring Ontological Realism

2017 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-413
Author(s):  
Meghan Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Realism

Semantic Realism

1998 ◽  
pp. 6-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Landry
Keyword(s):  
Category Theory ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Mathematical Concepts ◽  
Ontological Realism ◽  
Semantic Realism ◽  
And Mathematics

I argue that if we distinguish between ontological realism and semantic realism, then we no longer have to choose between platonism and formalism. If we take category theory as the language of mathematics, then a linguistic analysis of the content and structure of what we say in and about mathematical theories allows us to justify the inclusion of mathematical concepts and theories as legitimate objects of philosophical study. Insofar as this analysis relies on a distinction between ontological and semantic realism, it relies also on an implicit distinction between mathematics as a descriptive science and mathematics as a descriptive discourse. It is this latter distinction which gives rise to the tension between the mathematician qua philosopher. In conclusion, I argue that the tensions between formalism and platonism, indeed between mathematician and philosopher, arise because of an assumption that there is an analogy between mathematical talk and talk in the physical sciences.

Incomplete Secularization of History: Ethan Kleinberg and Hayden White

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Gustafsson Chorell
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Realism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Reasoning ◽  
Hayden White ◽  
Displacement Model ◽  
Historical Theory

Abstract According to the displacement model of secularization, religious-theological concepts, themes, and values have been reinterpreted in non-religious contexts without fully dispensing with the religious content. Secularization is thus incomplete. The incomplete secularization argument can be used as a lens through which to read Ethan Kleinberg’s deconstructive approach to the past. In his narrative, as reconstructed here, deconstruction promises to bring us closer to a secular relationship to the past than the ontological realism Kleinberg says still dominates contemporary historical theory. By contrasting Kleinberg’s analysis with Hayden White’s, whose oeuvre can be read as structured by the idea of incomplete secularization and a wish to liberate history from religious themes in order to enable a direct confrontation with meaninglessness, I argue that Kleinberg’s deconstructive approach does not fulfill its promise. Rather, it opens up a post-secular historiography in which religious themes might find a place at the very heart of historical reasoning.

Kant’s Epistemological Reorientation of Ontology

Kant Yearbook ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong-Fuk Lau
Keyword(s):  
Transcendental Idealism ◽  
Complex Theory ◽  
Ontological Realism ◽  
Causal Framework ◽  
Empirical Realism

Abstract This paper analyzes Kant’s epistemological reorientation of ontology, explaining in what sense Kant’s complex theory of transcendental idealism and empirical realism should be understood as an ontological realism under the framework of epistemological idealism. The paper shows that Kant’s concept of existence is only applicable to empirical objects in the spatiotemporal causal framework. Accordingly, not only things in themselves, but also epistemic conditions such as the transcendental subject and the faculties of sensibility and understanding cannot be said to exist. They are theoretical constructs in the transcendental discourse to account for the normative conditions of objective cognition and reality.

Realism about Film and Realism in Films

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Frank Boardman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Ontological Realism ◽  
Art Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
Andre Bazin

Realism has a significant place in the history of film theory. The claim that film is essentially a realistic art form has been employed to justify the art-status of films as well as the distinctness of film as a form. André Bazin and others once used realist ontologies of film to try to establish realist teleologies and universal critical standards. I briefly sketch this history before considering the prospects for various versions of realism: Bazin’s, as well as Kendall Walton’s and Gregory Currie’s less ambitious but more plausible accounts. I argue that these theories, though they are the best cases we have for realism, are not adequate ontologies of film. However, while prior realist philosophers and critics were wrong to think that realism can provide a critical standard for all films, realism is nonetheless a praiseworthy filmic achievement - one that the opponent of ontological realism should not dismiss.

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