Is Ontology An Apriori Champaign Of Knowledge?

The critical realists -- Roy Bhaskar inwards item -- attach a neat bargain of importance to the query of ontology. H5N1 theory of ontolo...

The critical realists -- Roy Bhaskar inwards item -- attach a neat bargain of importance to the query of ontology. H5N1 theory of ontology should depict the kinds of things, relations, in addition to forces that be inwards a realm. So the pre-Socratic philosophers were engaging inwards ontological theorizing when they asked the question, what does affair consist of -- atoms or a plenum?

The query I am raising hither is ane of philosophical methodology: what sort of epistemic footing is available for formulating in addition to defending a theory of ontology? How tin nosotros claim to know diverse truths most the nature of reality?

There seem to hold upward 3 possibilities.

• Apriori philosophical argument: derive conclusions most the necessary construction of the seat down from apriori philosophical principles. This is traditional metaphysics, in addition to few philosophers would advocate for it today. (foundationalist theory)
• Transcendental philosophical argument: instruct inwards at conclusions most what the seat down must consist of, inwards club to brand feel of our cognitive abilities. This is Kantian metaphysics, which attempts to do without foundational assumptions in addition to to derive conclusions from the prerequisites of epistemic achievements nosotros are known to have. (internalist theory)
• Generalized empirical theorizing: all noun representations of the seat down are hypothetical, justified yesteryear the contribution they brand to our powerfulness to formulate good, empirically supported scientific theories. This is the approach taken yesteryear naturalistic philosophers, who hold that at that topographic point are no apriori truths in addition to the entirely vehicle nosotros receive got for discovering the nature of the seat down is through scientific imagination in addition to observation. (coherence theory)

Ontology appears to hold upward most the world; but every bit it powerfulness hold upward considered to hold upward most a laid upward of specially primal concepts in addition to conceptual structures.  The question, "What does the seat down consist of?" tin also hold upward presented as the question, "What concepts serve best to correspond the hypothetical construction of the seat down underlying observations?" Concepts are the intellectual tools or schemes through which nosotros analyze the world; in addition to if they shout to unobservable entities, they are unavoidably hypothetical constructs. As "knowing beings", it has been necessary for human beings to usage their imaginations to come upward up amongst concepts inwards damage of which to analyze the world. Some conceptual systems are defective because they atomic number 82 to expectations most the seat down that are non born out; other systems are to a greater extent than complex than necessary; notwithstanding others postulate entities or processes that nosotros may receive got argue to desire to avoid: magical forces, divine intervention, action-at-a-distance. And when nosotros instruct inwards at a conceptual scheme that appears to serve good as a durable footing for a arrive at of scientific theories, nosotros may desire to conclude that the seat down genuinely has the properties attributed to it yesteryear the scheme.

Nelson Goodman takes a fairly radical sentiment on this query inwards Ways of Worldmaking. He takes the illustration of 2 obviously inconsistent statements most the world: "The Sun ever moves" in addition to "The Sun never moves." And he points out that the statements must hold upward framed inside ane or some other frame of reference; they are non absolutely truthful or false, but rather truthful or imitation amongst honour to a frame.

Frames of reference, though, belong less to what is described than to systems of description; in addition to each of the 2 statements relates what is described to such a system. If I inquire most the world, you lot tin offering to tell me how it is nether ane or to a greater extent than frames of reference; but if I insist that you lot tell me how it is apart from all frames, what tin you lot say? We are confined to ways of describing whatever is described. Our universe, so to speak, consists of these ways rather than of a seat down or of worlds. (58)

Here is the determination that Goodman reaches that is most relevant to the subject of realism:

Many unlike world-versions are of independent involvement in addition to importance, without whatsoever requirement or presumption of reducibility to a unmarried base. The pluralist, far from beingness anti-scientific, accepts the sciences at total value. His typical adversary is the monopolistic materialist or physicalist who maintains that ane system, physics, is preeminent in addition to all-inclusive, such that every other version must eventually hold upward reduced to it or rejected as imitation or meaningless. If all right versions could somehow hold upward reduced to ane in addition to entirely one, that ane powerfulness amongst some semblance of plausibility hold upward regarded as the entirely truth most the entirely world. But the bear witness for such reducibility is negligible, in addition to fifty-fifty the claim is nebulous since physics itself is fragmentary in addition to unstable in addition to the sort in addition to consequences of reduction envisaged are vague. (59-60)

The philosophical seat I am invoking hither is also a key purpose of W.V.O. Quine's approach to empirical noesis inwards Word in addition to Object. His phrase, the "web of belief", captures the thought well. All existent noesis falls inside that web, in addition to it is held together entirely yesteryear observation (when statements receive got implications for outcomes that tin hold upward observed) in addition to logic. The premises of quantum mechanics are some distance from the observational in addition to experimental sentences that tin hold upward examined inwards the lab; in addition to the premises of metaphysical theory are fifty-fifty to a greater extent than distant. But they are all theme on the same kinds of requirements: simplicity, coherence, in addition to (when possible), empirical observation. Quine referred to "Neurath's boat" as a means of describing the seat down of our noesis of the seat down -- from the observable properties of coal to the fundamentals of fourth dimension in addition to space:

Neurath has likened scientific discipline to a boat which, if nosotros are to rebuild it, nosotros must rebuild plank yesteryear plank field staying afloat inwards it. The philosopher in addition to the scientist are inwards the same boat. If nosotros ameliorate our agreement of ordinary verbalize of physical things, it volition non hold upward yesteryear reducing that verbalize to a to a greater extent than familiar idiom; at that topographic point is none. It volition hold upward yesteryear clarifying the connections, causal or otherwise, betwixt ordinary verbalize of physical things in addition to diverse farther matters which inwards plough nosotros grasp amongst assist of ordinary verbalize of physical things. (3)

...

Analyze theory-building how nosotros will, nosotros all must start inwards the middle. Our conceptual firsts are middle-sized, middle-distanced objects, in addition to our introduction to them in addition to to everything comes midway inwards the cultural development of the race.... We cannot strip away the conceptual trappings judgement yesteryear judgement in addition to instruct out a description of the objective world; but nosotros tin investigate the world, in addition to human as a purpose of it, in addition to hence discovery out what cues he could receive got of what goes on around him. (4-5)

(Quine's participation inwards the Boolos panel inwards a higher house is a really practiced exposure to some of his thinking most pregnant in addition to concepts.)

It is mayhap surprising to invoke Goodman in addition to Quine inwards the context of reflections on critical realism, since their philosophies are anti-realistic (or at to the lowest degree agnostic betwixt realism in addition to anti-realism), in addition to the logical-positivist background of much their thinking is anathema to the critical realists. Moreover, both lend back upward to a for certain sort of conceptual relativism: Quine through his arguments most the indeterminacy of translation in addition to ontological relativity (Ontological Relativity), in addition to Goodman through his sentiment of "many worlds" inwards Ways of Worldmaking. This perspective doesn't necessarily commit ane to anti-realism; inwards fact, Hilary Putnam's sweat to do a defensible formulation of "internal realism" indicates ane possible administration of declaration towards realism from these premises. (Maria Baghramian's give-and-take inwards "From Realism Back to Realism" of Putnam's diverse positions on realism is really good; link.) But it is hard to encounter how ane could instruct inwards at a potent philosophical realism inside these epistemic constraints.

However, if these arguments on the limits of metaphysical reasoning are valid, in addition to then nosotros demand to admit these limits in addition to motion forward. Fundamentally, the amount of their seat seems unassailable: at that topographic point is no epistemic foundation possible exterior the liberate constraints of empirical observation in addition to logic that tin justify a laid upward of beliefs most the primal construction of the world. There is no cloak-and-dagger recipe for arriving at metaphysical noesis through purely philosophical pathways.

The declaration of realism inwards which I receive got the greatest confidence is this: nosotros are justified inwards acknowledging the reality inwards the seat down of the things, processes, structures, in addition to forces that are postulated or implied yesteryear the best scientific theories nosotros receive got to date. And nosotros admit that these beliefs, similar all scientific in addition to empirical beliefs, are fallible in addition to correctable.

(An upcoming post volition verbalize over Tuukka Kaidesoja's really interesting critique of critical realism in addition to his advocacy of "naturalized critical realism" inwards Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology.)