The Model-Theoretic Argument and the Search for Common Cover Image

Argument teoriomodelowy a poszukiwanie realizmu zdroworozsądkowego
The Model-Theoretic Argument and the Search for Common

Author(s): Hilary Putnam
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Uniwersytet Warszawski - Wydział Filozofii i Socjologii, Instytut Filozofii
Keywords: model-theoretic argument; metaphysical realism; anti-realism; reference; truth; common sense realism; disquotationalism

Summary/Abstract: The first section of the paper gives a very condensed history of the evolution of the author’s views on realism and anti-realism. It emphasizes that his previously accepted form of anti-realism was abandoned not because of the alleged fallacies in the model-theoretic argument against metaphysical realism, but due to his rejection of some of the assumptions on which it rests — assumptions which have been almost universal in philosophy after Descartes. The second section discusses and defends the part of the model-theoretic argument that many critics have almost universally found fallacious, namely the „just more theory” move. In the appendix to the paper the author elaborates what does his return to common sense realism mean. He points out that his position involves a negative element, the rejection of the idea that truth cannot outrun verifiability, and two positive elements: returning (as close as possible) to „naïve realism” with respect to perception, and a disquotational account of truth similar to one endorsed by Wittgenstein.

  • Issue Year: 19/2011
  • Issue No: 1 (73)
  • Page Range: 7-24
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish