Last Friday I attended a talk by Derek Ball (from the University of St. Andrews), titled "Philosophy Without Truth". His basic claim was that even if philosophical theories were never true, we might nonetheless have reason to accept them. His argument followed the structure of arguments for anti-realism in the philosophy of science, appealing to, amongst other things, the failure of previous philosophical theories and fact that some theories might actually contradict themselves if they were true.
I think that the most interesting point came out in the discussion at the end, where someone suggested that we might want to go for a "pluralism-plus" with regard to the aims of different philosophical disciplines. This would mean that not only might different disciplines have different aims (a possibility that Ball mentioned towards the end of his talk), but that even within a given discipline there might be a number of different competing aims, truth being only one of them.
What might some of those aims look like?
Truth - Obviously we might think it's important that a philosophical theory is true (whatever that might mean).
Scientific Progress - Related to the above, some disciplines/schools see philosophy as being continuous with science, in which case (presuming scientific realism!) they might well aim at truth.
Instrumental Value - On the other hand, we might only care about a theory being in some way "useful", whether that be to scientific progress or in some ethical sense. Pragmatism (as a global description) perhaps falls into this category.
Clarity - Even if it doesn't achieve anything else, a philosophical education certainly enables one to think and reason clearly, and could be valuable for that reason alone.
Being "Interesting" - Towards the end of the discussion I flippantly commented that if we were only motivated by being interesting, we'd be better off becoming fiction writers, but I do actually agree that there can be an aesthetic value to philosophy.
Being Fun - A bit like being interesting, but somewhat broader and perhaps more liable to result in incoherent post-modern ramblings.1
Existential Necessity - Not an aim so much as a motivation, but philosophy asks some pretty mind-bending questions, and perhaps at some level simply pursuing those questions is a necessary component of a fulfilling life.
Winning - The aim of philosophy is to disprove the argument of others while working within the rules of logic.2
I think that all of these are important, and all in some sense contribute to my reasons for pursuing a philosophical career. Some are definitely more important than others though, and if I didn't think that there was at least some instrumental value to what I was doing, I probably wouldn't carry on doing it. On the other hand, I find it hard to imagine a life without philosophy, so perhaps I haven't got much choice in the matter.
This list is by no means comprehensive, so please let me know if you can think of any other aims of philosophy!
1. Inspired by a comment from Krzysztof Dołęga, although he is not responsible for the suggestion that incoherent post-modern ramblings are "fun".
2. Krzysztof also suggested this, albeit as an example of "fun".
Showing posts with label pragmatism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pragmatism. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Pragmatic Structural Realism
I'm slowly making my way through Everything Must Go (Ladyman et al 2007), and it's honestly been a breath of fresh air - clarifying, and to some extent answering, several concerns about the philosophy of science that I've been harbouring for some time. It's led me to a version of what Ladyman et al call "ontic structural realism" which I'm tentatively referring to as "pragmatic structural realism". I haven't finished the book yet, so bear with me if this doesn't make any sense, or if I've got something wrong.
Put very simplistically, there is a tension between two broad approaches to science: (constructive) empiricism and (scientific) realism.1 The former states that we should take our scientific theories to be no more than adequate descriptions of the phenomena under investigation, whilst the latter commits science to the literal truth of its theories, and by extension to the existence of the unobservable entities that they describe. For example, the realist is committed to the actual existence of sub-atomic particles, whilst the empiricist will merely use them as part of the description of a contingently accurate theory, without making any judgement as to whether or not they exist.2
Both approaches appear to be flawed (although in ways more complicated than the following paragraph might suggest). Realism is committed to the existence of entities that are likely to turn out not to exist, or not to exist in quite the way that we thought they did. As science progresses, some of these entities become redundant, implying a level of discontinuity between theories that in practice is not manifested. Empiricism, meanwhile, struggles to explain why these entities have any explanatory power, if in fact they're not real (it also risks descent into total relativism). Ladyman et al present structural realism as almost a dialectical synthesis of these two approaches, but for now I'll simply try and break down my own understanding of it.
Realism: Scientific theories do attempt to describe some underlying reality, although of course they are often wrong. Contra empiricism, they are more than just a conveniently accurate account of observable phenomena.
Structural: However, it is not unobservable entities per se that these theories are committed to, but rather the structural relationships between them (if indeed they exist at all). This structure is what underlies reality, and is what science seeks to describe. Whilst theory change requires abandoning some entities, the structure of the previous theory can be retained. Thus, Ladyman et al describe how both successive theories and theories at different explanatory levels can be related in terms of mathematical structure rather than direct one-to-one mapping of entities and propositions (2007: 118).
Pragmatic: Science is an ongoing process, and so we must recognise the commitments of our current theories as pragmatic place-holders rather than absolute certainties. These theories are our best guess at the structure of reality, and we adapt them as new evidence becomes available. Furthermore, our commitment to structural realism is itself pragmatic, motivated by our belief that it best describes actual scientific (and epistemic) practice.
How is this relevant to the philosophy of mind? Well, for one thing I'm keen to make sure that my understanding of the mind is based on an accurate understanding of science. It's important to ensure that we know what we're on about when try to describe the physical instantiation of the mind. On one level this calls for an understanding of psychology and neuroscience, but on another it means coming to grips, at least in basic sense, with physics. All science essentially boils down to physics of some description, and even if we're quickly going to abstract away from that fundamental level, I think we need to understand it first. Otherwise our entire project is going to rest on faulty foundations.
James Ladyman strikes me as someone who's got a very clear grasp of both contemporary science and the muddled attempts of philosophers to try and make sense of it. His 2010 paper (with Don Ross) on appeals to scientific practice in the extended mind debate really struck home for me, and Everything Must Go is more of the same, although heavy going at times. I'm looking forward to hearing him speak at this conference in a week's time, and I'll maybe report back with some further thoughts after that.
1. This terminology is somewhat misleading, as strictly speaking scientific realists are also empiricists. The difference lies in what they believe to exist, not how they advocate studying it.
2. Complicating things further is the apparent failure of modern philosophy to appreciate the nature of contemporary physics. We tend to talk of physics as though it studies discrete, although very small, objects. According to Ladyman et al this is incorrect, and more importantly philosophically unhelpful.
Put very simplistically, there is a tension between two broad approaches to science: (constructive) empiricism and (scientific) realism.1 The former states that we should take our scientific theories to be no more than adequate descriptions of the phenomena under investigation, whilst the latter commits science to the literal truth of its theories, and by extension to the existence of the unobservable entities that they describe. For example, the realist is committed to the actual existence of sub-atomic particles, whilst the empiricist will merely use them as part of the description of a contingently accurate theory, without making any judgement as to whether or not they exist.2
Both approaches appear to be flawed (although in ways more complicated than the following paragraph might suggest). Realism is committed to the existence of entities that are likely to turn out not to exist, or not to exist in quite the way that we thought they did. As science progresses, some of these entities become redundant, implying a level of discontinuity between theories that in practice is not manifested. Empiricism, meanwhile, struggles to explain why these entities have any explanatory power, if in fact they're not real (it also risks descent into total relativism). Ladyman et al present structural realism as almost a dialectical synthesis of these two approaches, but for now I'll simply try and break down my own understanding of it.
Realism: Scientific theories do attempt to describe some underlying reality, although of course they are often wrong. Contra empiricism, they are more than just a conveniently accurate account of observable phenomena.
Structural: However, it is not unobservable entities per se that these theories are committed to, but rather the structural relationships between them (if indeed they exist at all). This structure is what underlies reality, and is what science seeks to describe. Whilst theory change requires abandoning some entities, the structure of the previous theory can be retained. Thus, Ladyman et al describe how both successive theories and theories at different explanatory levels can be related in terms of mathematical structure rather than direct one-to-one mapping of entities and propositions (2007: 118).
Pragmatic: Science is an ongoing process, and so we must recognise the commitments of our current theories as pragmatic place-holders rather than absolute certainties. These theories are our best guess at the structure of reality, and we adapt them as new evidence becomes available. Furthermore, our commitment to structural realism is itself pragmatic, motivated by our belief that it best describes actual scientific (and epistemic) practice.
How is this relevant to the philosophy of mind? Well, for one thing I'm keen to make sure that my understanding of the mind is based on an accurate understanding of science. It's important to ensure that we know what we're on about when try to describe the physical instantiation of the mind. On one level this calls for an understanding of psychology and neuroscience, but on another it means coming to grips, at least in basic sense, with physics. All science essentially boils down to physics of some description, and even if we're quickly going to abstract away from that fundamental level, I think we need to understand it first. Otherwise our entire project is going to rest on faulty foundations.
James Ladyman strikes me as someone who's got a very clear grasp of both contemporary science and the muddled attempts of philosophers to try and make sense of it. His 2010 paper (with Don Ross) on appeals to scientific practice in the extended mind debate really struck home for me, and Everything Must Go is more of the same, although heavy going at times. I'm looking forward to hearing him speak at this conference in a week's time, and I'll maybe report back with some further thoughts after that.
1. This terminology is somewhat misleading, as strictly speaking scientific realists are also empiricists. The difference lies in what they believe to exist, not how they advocate studying it.
2. Complicating things further is the apparent failure of modern philosophy to appreciate the nature of contemporary physics. We tend to talk of physics as though it studies discrete, although very small, objects. According to Ladyman et al this is incorrect, and more importantly philosophically unhelpful.
- Ladyman, J., Ross, D., Spurrett, D. & Collier, J. 2007. Everything Must Go. Oxford: OUP.
- Ross, D & Ladyman, J. 2010 "The Alleged Coupling-Constitution Fallacy and the Mature Sciences." In The Extended Mind, ed. Menary. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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