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Full Idea
Reality is what is invariant among true complete theories.
Gist of Idea
Reality is the overlap of true complete theories
Source
Gilbert Harman ((Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics [1987], 12.2.4)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.215
A Reaction
The sort of slogan that gets coined in the age of Quine. The whole manner of starting from your theories and working out to what we think reality is seems to be putting the cart before the horse.
Related Ideas
Idea 14334 Modest realism says there is a reality; the presumptuous view says we can accurately describe it [Mumford]
Idea 17644 Metaphysical realism is committed to there being one ultimate true theory [Putnam]
| 12588 | Meaning from use of thoughts, constructed from concepts, which have a role relating to reality [Harman] |
| 12589 | Some regard conceptual role semantics as an entirely internal matter [Harman] |
| 12590 | Take meaning to be use in calculation with concepts, rather than in communication [Harman] |
| 12591 | Mastery of a language requires thinking, and not just communication [Harman] |
| 12592 | Concepts in thought have content, but not meaning, which requires communication [Harman] |
| 12593 | The use theory attaches meanings to words, not to sentences [Harman] |
| 12594 | If one proposition negates the other, which is the negative one? [Harman] |
| 12596 | Reasoning aims at increasing explanatory coherence [Harman] |
| 12595 | We have a theory of logic (implication and inconsistency), but not of inference or reasoning [Harman] |
| 12597 | I might accept P and Q as likely, but reject P-and-Q as unlikely [Harman] |
| 12598 | Reality is the overlap of true complete theories [Harman] |
| 12599 | Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them [Harman] |
| 12601 | The way things look is a relational matter, not an intrinsic matter [Harman] |
| 12600 | The content of thought is relations, between mental states, things in the world, and contexts [Harman] |
| 12602 | There is no natural border between inner and outer [Harman] |
| 12603 | We can only describe mental attitudes in relation to the external world [Harman] |