Single Idea 16525

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 5. Language Relativism]

Full Idea

What sortal concepts we can bring to bear upon experience determines what we can find there.

Gist of Idea

Our sortal concepts fix what we find in experience

Source

David Wiggins (Sameness and Substance [1980], 5.6)

Book Reference

Wiggins,David: 'Sameness and Substance' [Blackwell 1980], p.141


A Reaction

Wiggins would wince at being classed among linguistic relativists of the Sapir-Whorf type, but that's where I'm putting this idea. Wiggins is a realist, who knows there are things out there our concepts miss. He compares it to a fishing net. He's wrong.