From the Bookshelf of Philosophy…

Realism and Antirealism

William P. Alston (Editor)

Why we're reading this: This collection of essays explores the issues of realism and modern antirealism, looking closely at the q…more
[close] This collection of essays explores the issues of realism and modern antirealism, looking closely at the question of how well the human mind can know reality.

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Mar 29, 2009 Tyler rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy

This book of essays resulted from a philosophical symposium held in the year 2000. The book's 300 or so pages treat some aspects of the realism/antirealism debate in great depth while leaving others thinly covered.

The four parts of the book deal first with realism and antirealism in general, then with metaphysics, with epistemology, and with certain “departmental” issues. The essays vary sharply in quality and interest, so the book cannot be judged as a whole. About forty percent of it examines This book of essays resulted from a philosophical symposium held in the year 2000. The book's 300 or so pages treat some aspects of the realism/antirealism debate in great depth while leaving others thinly covered.

The four parts of the book deal first with realism and antirealism in general, then with metaphysics, with epistemology, and with certain “departmental” issues. The essays vary sharply in quality and interest, so the book cannot be judged as a whole. About forty percent of it examines theological perspectives on the debate. The rest of the essays concern themselves in good part with issues raised by the antirealist philosopher Hilary Putnam, and tangentially with another antirealist, Richard Rorty.

The uneven discussions of realism and antirealism arise from the limitation of the essayists to people who presented at this particular conference. The unevenness crops up in various ways. As an example, an interesting bridging concept between realism and antirealism is “departmental” realism, the possibility of moving between the two concepts as the issue at hand dictates. You would expect Kant’s noumena to be a subject of interest here, right? Well, no. In fact, the essays on departmental realism pertain mostly to theology, with only one taking up a different subject, realism in literature. The lack of variety disappoints.

Drawing from a shallow pool yields essays that seem overly focused upon Hilary Putnam’s ever-changing ideas. This narrow focus fails also to account adequately for epistemological hierarchy (as with a discussion of the “brains-in-a-vat” thought experiment) and the metaphysical and epistemological status of hypotheticals (e.g., is theoretical physics really cut from the same cloth as speculation about God?). The disquisitions on God presume a Christian sense (God is a priori “good,” “love,” etc.) of the concept, to the exclusion of Islamic and Eastern interpretations.

A workable familiarity with philosophical ideas and trends would be helpful in reading this collection. I actually do recommend the book, due to its good essays; readers may approach the book best if they look only at the essays they see they'll like and skip the ones that don’t interest them.

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