| Description |
1 online resource (xxvi, 494 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; How to Read This Book; 1 Scrutability and the Aufbau; 1 Primitive concepts; 2 Objections to the Aufbau; 3 From definitional to a priori scrutability; 4 From descriptions to intensions; 5 The scrutability base; 6 Reviving the Aufbau; First Excursus: Scrutability and Knowability; Second Excursus: The Inscrutability of Reference and the Scrutability of Truth; 2 Varieties of Scrutability; 1 Scrutability theses; 2 Sentences or propositions?; 3 Inferential scrutability; 4 Conditional scrutability; 5 A priori scrutability; 6 Generalized scrutability |
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7 Idealization8 Objections from idealization; Third Excursus: Sentential and Propositional Scrutability; Fourth Excursus: Warrants and Support Structures; Fifth Excursus: Insulated Idealization and the Problem of elf-Doubt; 3 Adventures with a Cosmoscope; 1 A scrutability base; 2 The Cosmoscope argument; 3 The argument from elimination; 4 The argument from knowability; 5 Inferential scrutability with a Cosmoscope; 6 Conditional scrutability; 7 The objection from recognitional capacities; 8 The objection from counterfactuals; Sixth Excursus: Totality Truths and Indexical Truths |
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4 The Case for A Priori Scrutability1 From Conditional to A Priori Scrutability; 2 The argument from suspension of belief; 3 The argument from frontloading; 4 Causal roles, mediating roles, and justifying roles; 5 Generalized A Priori Scrutability; 6 Objections from self-knowledge; 7 Objections from theories of concepts and reference; 8 Objections from acquaintance and from nonpropositional evidence; 9 The objection from empirical inference; Seventh Excursus: Varieties of Apriority; Eighth Excursus: Recent Challenges to the A Priori; 5 Revisability and Conceptual Change; 1 Introduction |
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2 The arguments of 'Two Dogmas'3 Carnap on intensions; 4 A Carnapian response; 5 Refining Carnap's account; 6 A Bayesian analysis of holding-true; 7 A Bayesian analysis of revisability; 8 Quinean objections; 9 Conclusion; Ninth Excursus: Scrutability and Conceptual Dynamics; Tenth Excursus: Constructing Epistemic Space; Eleventh Excursus: Constructing Fregean Senses; 6 Hard Cases; 1 Introduction; 2 Mathematical truths; 3 Normative and evaluative truths; 4 Ontological truths; 5 Other philosophical truths; 6 Modal truths; 7 Intentional truths; 8 Social truths; 9 Deferential terms; 10 Names |
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11 Metalinguistic truths12 Indexicals and demonstratives; 13 Vagueness; 14 Secondary qualities; 15 Macrophysical truths; 16 Counterfactual truths; 17 Conclusion; Twelfth Excursus: Scrutability and the Unity of Science; 7 Minimizing the Base; 1 Introduction; 2 Heuristics; 3 Microphysical expressions; 4 Color, other secondary qualities, and mass; 5 Spatiotemporal expressions; 6 Causal and nomic expressions; 7 Phenomenal expressions; 8 Compression using laws; 9 Quiddities; 10 Other expressions; 11 Packages; Thirteenth Excursus: From the Aufbau to the Canberra Plan |
| Summary |
David Chalmers develops a picture of reality on which all truths can be derived from a limited class of basic truths. The picture is inspired by Rudolf Carnap's construction of the world in Der Logische Aufbau Der Welt. Carnap's Aufbau is often seen as a noble failure, but Chalmers argues that a version of the project can succeed. With the right basic elements and the right derivation relation, we can indeed construct the world. The focal point of Chalmers'project is scrutability: the thesis that ideal reasoning from a limited class of basic truths yields all truths about the world. Chalmers first argues for the scrutability thesis and then considers how small the base can be. The result is a framework in "metaphysical epistemology": epistemology in service of a globalpicture of the world. The scrutability framework has ramifications throughout philosophy. Using it, Chalmers defends a broadly Fregean approach to meaning, argues for an internalist approach to the contents of thought, and rebuts W.V. Quine's arguments against the analytic and the a priori. He also uses scrutability to analyze the unity of science, to defend a sort of conceptual metaphysics, and to mount a structuralist response to skepticism. Based on Chalmers's 2010 John Locke lectures, Constructing the World opens up debate on central philosophical issues concerning knowledge, language, mind, and reality |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 475-483) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Knowledge, Theory of.
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Logical positivism.
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epistemology.
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PHILOSOPHY -- Epistemology.
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Knowledge, Theory of
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Logical positivism
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Kennistheorie.
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Logisk positivism.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780191654930 |
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0191654930 |
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1283609665 |
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9781283609661 |
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