Standpoints

Abstract There is a deeply entrenched assumption that reality has the structure of a single stack of facts, and that a total view of the facts is either a view from somewhere special, a standpoint from which things are viewed as they truly are, or from a view from nowhere. This book rejects this assumption. Many phenomena can only be properly described from the multiple standpoints within the world, none of which are ultimately special. This book develops a philosophical framework that allows us to accept perspectival facts without needing to privilege one perspective. In particular, it allows us to accept the reality of temporal and subjective facts without needing to privilege a time, such as the present, or a subject, such as oneself. The framework develops a form of fragmentalism, which takes the world to consist in multiple stacks of facts instead of one single stack of facts. When we represent the temporal facts that obtain at times other than the present, or the subjective facts that obtain relative to other subjects, we adopt the standpoint of these other moments in time or other subjects. Because no time or subject is metaphysically privileged, we are free to adopt any temporal or subjective standpoint in our thinking about the world. In fact, we must engage in this type of immersive thinking if we want to properly understand phenomena such as the passage of time or conscious experience.