Abstract
One of the main questions about knowledge is the relation of knowledge to reality. This question is particularly important for the heuristic view of philosophy, according to which philosophy aims at knowledge and methods to acquire knowledge. In the course of the history of philosophy, the question of the relation of knowledge to reality has received several answers. In this chapter, a number of them are briefly discussed and found wanting: direct realism, representative realism, scientific realism, liberalized scientific realism, mathematical structural realism, semantic structural realism, essentialist realism, subjective idealism, and phenomenalism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Berkeley, George. 1948–1957. Works. London: Nelson.
Boltzmann, Ludwig. 1974. Theoretical physics and philosophical problems: Selected writings. Dordrecht: Springer.
Chang, Hasok. 2012. Is water H2O? Evidence, realism and pluralism. Dordrecht: Springer.
Clavius, Christophorus. 1601. In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius. Venice: Sub signo Solis.
Einstein, Albert. 1998. Letter to Eduard Study, 25 September 1918. In Albert Einstein, Collected papers, vol. 8, 651–653. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Einstein, Albert, and Leopold Infeld. 1966. The evolution of physics. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Ellis, Brian. 2002. The philosophy of nature: A guide to the new essentialism. Chesham: Acumen.
———. 2008. Essentialism and natural kinds. In The Routledge companion to philosophy of science, ed. Martin Curd and Stathis Psillos, 139–148. London: Routledge.
Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf. 1956. The principles of mechanics presented in a new form. Mineola: Dover.
Locke, John. 1975. An essay concerning human understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyons, Timothy D. 2006. Scientific realism and the stratagema de Divide et Impera. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 : 537–560.
Mill, John Stuart. 1963–1986. Collected works. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Musgrave, Alan. 1988. The ultimate argument for scientific realism. In Relativism and realism in science, ed. Robert Nola, 229–252. Dordrecht: Springer.
Popper, Karl Raimund. 1972. Objective knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 1999. All life is problem solving. London: Routledge.
Psillos, Stathis. 1999. Scientific realism: How science tracks truth. London: Routledge.
Putnam, Hilary. 1975–1983. Philosophical papers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1978. Meaning and the moral sciences. London: Routledge.
Sankey, Howard. 2008. Scientific realism and the rationality of science. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Tegmark, Max. 2008. The mathematical universe. Foundations of Physics 38 : 101–150.
van Fraassen, Bas. 1980. The scientific image. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 1985. Empiricism in the philosophy of science. In Images of science: Essays on realism and empiricism, ed. Paul Churchland and Clifford Hooker, 245–308. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 1989. Laws and symmetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2008. Scientific representation: Paradoxes of perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cellucci, C. (2017). Knowledge and Reality. In: Rethinking Knowledge. European Studies in Philosophy of Science, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53237-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53237-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53236-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53237-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)