Realistic Rationalism
Available
 
About the Book
In Realistic Rationalism, Jerrold J. Katz develops a new philosophical position integrating realism and rationalism. Realism here means that the objects of study in mathematics and other formal sciences are abstract; rationalism means that our knowledge of them is not empirical. Katz uses this position to meet the principal challenges to realism. In exposing the flaws in criticisms of the antirealists, he shows that realists can explain knowledge of abstract objects without supposing we have causal contact with them, that numbers are determinate objects, and that the standard counterexamples to the abstract/concrete distinction have no force. Generalizing the account of knowledge used to meet the challenges to realism, he develops a rationalist and non-naturalist account of philosophical knowledge and argues that it is preferable to contemporary naturalist and empiricist accounts. The book illuminates a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of necessity, the distinction between the formal and natural sciences, empiricist holism, the structure of ontology, and philosophical skepticism. Philosophers will use this fresh treatment of realism and rationalism as a starting point for new directions in their own research.
Book Details
ISBN-13: 9780262611510
EAN: 9780262611510
Publisher Date: 27 Jan 2000
Age-Min: 18
Dewey: 149.2
Grade-Max: Up
Height: 226 mm
LCCN: 97026469
No of Pages: 264
PrintOnDemand: Y
Series Title: English
Width: 150 mm
ISBN-10: 0262611511
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
Age-Max: UP
Binding: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Grade-Min: College Freshman
Language: English
MediaMail: Y
Number of Items: 01
Returnable: N
Spine Width: 14 mm