Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
The Extension Defended
View through CrossRef
This chapter defends the argument in favour of optimism set out in Chapter 5 (OA2) by focusing on whether it operates with too low a standard for explanation. Three proposals for higher standards are considered in turn: 1) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘total information’; 2) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘reductive information’; 3) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘highly naturalistic information’. The latter concept arises from ideas about natural properties due to David Lewis. A discussion of Lewis on natural properties and their definition leads to a further discussion of scientific realism. All three proposals for higher standards are found wanting. At the end of the chapter, an assessment of the overall case for optimism set out in Chapters 3–6 is offered.
Title: The Extension Defended
Description:
This chapter defends the argument in favour of optimism set out in Chapter 5 (OA2) by focusing on whether it operates with too low a standard for explanation.
Three proposals for higher standards are considered in turn: 1) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘total information’; 2) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘reductive information’; 3) an explanation should provide what will be called ‘highly naturalistic information’.
The latter concept arises from ideas about natural properties due to David Lewis.
A discussion of Lewis on natural properties and their definition leads to a further discussion of scientific realism.
All three proposals for higher standards are found wanting.
At the end of the chapter, an assessment of the overall case for optimism set out in Chapters 3–6 is offered.
Related Results
Moorean Methodology
Moorean Methodology
In this chapter a Moorean approach, on which one seeks to defeat, rather than refute, skepticism, is explained, developed, and defended. The issue of whether skepticism was doomed ...
Why Camus Matters
Why Camus Matters
Albert Camus is a thinker who matters deeply for the 21st century.
Camus was a man of the Left, without believing in inevitable progress; he wrestled with nihilis...
Later Malebranche
Later Malebranche
This chapter looks at two of Malebranche’s later innovations. I argue that the first (imbuing ideas with causal power) is of no help in explaining perception, for a causal connecti...
Reply to Strawson 1
Reply to Strawson 1
This chapter presents one strategy for responding to Strawson’s challenge that appeals to the idea that sameness of extension does not track samesaying. If a sentence p contains a ...
The Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Tree Steward Manual
The Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Tree Steward Manual
The Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Tree Steward Manual is an open educational handbook designed to aid Extension Master Gardeners training to be tree stewards, thou...
Say It with Flowers
Say It with Flowers
This chapter continues the investigation of remedies for wrongdoing. It focuses on the deficit (or ‘remainder’) that is inevitably left when a fallback duty is performed according ...
John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman
The nature of faith and reason and their proper relation was a preoccupation of John Henry Newman throughout his long writing career, beginning with his Oxford University Sermons a...
Freitas Versus Grotius (1959)
Freitas Versus Grotius (1959)
This chapter considers the work of Franciscus Seraphin de Freitas, a professor at the University of Valadolid, in particular his treatise entitled De Justo Imperio Lusitanorum Asia...