Title: Austere realism : contextual semantics meets minimal ontology /
Authors: Horgan, Terry, 1948-; Potrč, Matjaž
Publisher: MIT Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Ontology.; Realism.; Semantics.
Abstract: "The authors of Austere Realism describe and defend a provocative ontological-cum-semantic position, asserting that the right ontology is minimal or austere, in that it excludes numerous commonsense posits, and that statements employing such posits are nonetheless true, when truth is understood to be semantic correctedness under contextually operative semantic standards. Terence Horgan and Matjaz Potrc argue that austere realism emerges naturally from consideration of the deep problems within the naive commonsense approach to truth and ontology. They offer an account of truth that confronts these deep internal problems and is independently plausible: contextual semantics, which asserts that truth is semantically correct affirmability. Under contextual semantics, much ordinary and scientific thought and discourse is true because its truth is indirect correspondence to the world." "After offering further arguments for austere realism and addressing objections to it, Horgan and Potrc consider various alternative austere ontologies. They advance a specific version they call "blobjectivism"--The view that the right ontology includes only one concrete particular, the entire cosmos ("the blobject"), which, although it has enormous local spatiotemporal variability, does not have any proper parts." "The arguments in Austere Realism are powerfully made and concisely and lucidly set out. The authors' contentions and their methodological approach - products of a decade-long collaboration - will generate lively debate among scholars in metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy."--Jacket.
Contents: 1. Simple Realism: The Naive Approach to Truth and Ontology -- 2. Problems for Simple Realism -- 3. Contextual Semantics: Truth as Indirect Correspondence -- 4. Austere Realism: Overcoming Simple Realism's Problems -- 5. The Ascendance of the Austere: Further Arguments for Austere Realism -- 6. Objections to Austere Realism -- 7. Betting on the Blobject: The Choice among Austere Ontologies.