02.04 Perspectival Truth – Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems
Channel: Johannes Jaeger
Date: 2020-04-23

Module 2 of "Beyond Networks" introduces the philosophy of scientific perspectivism (or perspectival realism). This last lecture of the module addresses the problem of truth in perspective. How can scientific knowledge relate to reality, if it can be neither 100% certain nor truly objective? How can we determine the trustworthiness of our claims? I am using William Wimsatt's concept of "robustness" and Michela Massimi's work on "getting things right" (by assessment of claims across perspectives) to show how we can get reliable knowledge without having to step out of our own heads. This motivates our stepping out of the perspective of genetic reductionism for the rest of the lecture, which will continue with an introduction to process thinking and its application to the generation of scientific knowledge itself in module 3. Stay tuned! 

Wimsatt's account of robustness is from "Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings" (Harvard University Press, 2007). 

Michela Massimi's account of perspectival truth is from her 2016 paper in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 96: 342–59.