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Single Idea 13934

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality ]

Full Idea

To be real in the scientific sense means to be an element of the system; hence this concept cannot be meaningfully applied to the system itself.

Gist of Idea

To be 'real' is to be an element of a system, so we cannot ask reality questions about the system itself

Source

Rudolph Carnap (Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology [1950], 2)

Book Ref

Carnap,Rudolph: 'Meaning and Necessity (2nd ed)' [Chicago 1988], p.207

The 25 ideas with the same theme [sort of reality to which realists are committed]:

221 Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
6562 Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux [Plato, by Fogelin]
12095 Knowledge of potential is universal and indefinite; of the actual it is definite and of individuals [Aristotle]
6262 We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne]
12752 Only unities have any reality [Leibniz]
21926 Schopenhauer, unlike other idealists, says reality is irrational [Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
10352 The real is the idea in which the community ultimately settles down [Peirce]
22202 The World is all experiencable objects [Husserl]
5370 Space is neutral between touch and sight, so it cannot really be either of them [Russell]
22161 Readiness-to-hand defines things in themselves ontologically [Heidegger]
13934 To be 'real' is to be an element of a system, so we cannot ask reality questions about the system itself [Carnap]
17659 Reality is largely a matter of habit [Goodman]
8507 Some think of reality as made of things; I prefer facts or states of affairs [Armstrong]
12598 Reality is the overlap of true complete theories [Harman]
2329 Causal power is a good way of distinguishing the real from the unreal [Kim]
7974 Without God we faced reality: what do we face without reality? [Baudrillard]
6082 If causal power is the test for reality, that will exclude necessities and possibilities [McGinn]
1605 Reality can be viewed neutrally, or as an object of desire [Roochnik]
9211 A non-standard realism, with no privileged standpoint, might challenge its absoluteness or coherence [Fine,K]
15072 Bottom level facts are subject to time and world, middle to world but not time, and top to neither [Fine,K]
15047 What is real can only be settled in terms of 'ground' [Fine,K]
15046 Reality is a primitive metaphysical concept, which cannot be understood in other terms [Fine,K]
15048 In metaphysics, reality is regarded as either 'factual', or as 'fundamental' [Fine,K]
15060 Why should what is explanatorily basic be therefore more real? [Fine,K]
21660 Reality can be seen as the totality of facts, or as the totality of things [Hofweber]