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Single Idea 14205
[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 4. Anti-realism
]
Full Idea
The sentence 'A cat is on a mat' can be reinterpreted so that in the actual world 'cat' refers to cherries and 'mat' refers to trees, without affecting the truth-value of the sentence in any possible world.
Gist of Idea
The sentence 'A cat is on a mat' remains always true when 'cat' means cherry and 'mat' means tree
Source
Hilary Putnam (Reason, Truth and History [1981], Ch.2)
Book Ref
Putnam,Hilary: 'Reason, Truth and History' [CUP 1998], p.33
A Reaction
This simple suggestion is the basis of a notorious argument in favour of anti-realism. See D.Lewis's 'Putnam's Paradox'. It tracks back to Skolem's doubts about whether infinitary mathematics is possible. Putnam's conclusion sounds daft.
Related Ideas
Idea 14206
There are infinitely many interpretations of a sentence which can all seem to be 'correct' [Putnam]
Idea 14207
If cats equal cherries, model theory allows reinterpretation of the whole language preserving truth [Putnam]
The
36 ideas
with the same theme
[either denial of external reality, or of its having knowable structure]:
5953
|
For the Cyrenaics experience was not enough to give certainty about reality
[Aristippus young, by Plutarch]
|
18876
|
Berkeley does believe in trees, but is confused about what trees are
[Berkeley, by Cameron]
|
19386
|
Without the subject or the senses, space and time vanish, as their appearances disappear
[Kant]
|
21445
|
Even the most perfect intuition gets no closer to things in themselves
[Kant]
|
4167
|
The knowing subject and the crude matter of the world are both in themselves unknowable
[Schopenhauer]
|
6949
|
If someone doubted reality, they would not actually feel dissatisfaction
[Peirce]
|
18316
|
The grounds for an assertion that the world is only apparent actually establish its reality
[Nietzsche]
|
22213
|
Absolute reality is an absurdity
[Husserl]
|
20730
|
If objects are doubted because their appearances change, that presupposes one object
[Colvin]
|
20729
|
Arguments that objects are unknowable or non-existent assume the knower's existence
[Colvin]
|
20731
|
The idea that everything is relations is contradictory; relations are part of the concept of things
[Colvin]
|
7545
|
Visible things are physical and external, but only exist when viewed
[Russell]
|
17538
|
Quantum theory does not introduce minds into atomic events
[Heisenberg]
|
23068
|
People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it
[Cioran]
|
17657
|
We build our world, and ignore anything that won't fit
[Goodman]
|
9943
|
You can't deny a hypothesis a truth-value simply because we may never know it!
[Putnam]
|
17648
|
It is an illusion to think there could be one good scientific theory of reality
[Putnam]
|
14214
|
If we try to cure the abundance of theories with causal links, this is 'just more theory'
[Putnam, by Lewis]
|
14205
|
The sentence 'A cat is on a mat' remains always true when 'cat' means cherry and 'mat' means tree
[Putnam]
|
22181
|
Putnam says anti-realism is a bad explanation of accurate predictions
[Putnam, by Okasha]
|
8185
|
We can't make sense of a world not apprehended by a mind
[Dummett]
|
8192
|
I no longer think what a statement about the past says is just what can justify it
[Dummett]
|
3303
|
For anti-realists there are no natural distinctions between objects
[Dummett, by Benardete,JA]
|
8596
|
Inability to measure equality doesn't make all lengths unequal
[Shoemaker]
|
8597
|
We couldn't verify the earth's rotation if everyone simultaneously fell asleep
[Shoemaker]
|
14213
|
Anti-realists see the world as imaginary, or lacking joints, or beyond reference, or beyond truth
[Lewis]
|
7065
|
Anti-realists who reduce reality to language must explain the existence of language
[Heil]
|
9601
|
The realist/anti-realist debate is notoriously obscure and fruitless
[Williamson]
|
10410
|
Anti-realists can't explain different methods to measure distance
[Swoyer]
|
14306
|
Anti-realists deny truth-values to all statements, and say evidence and ontology are inseparable
[Mumford]
|
4711
|
Anti-realists say our theories (such as wave-particle duality) give reality incompatible properties
[O'Grady]
|
6780
|
Anti-realism is more plausible about laws than about entities and theories
[Bird]
|
18693
|
Indeterminacy arguments say if a theory can be made true, it has multiple versions
[Button]
|
18695
|
An ideal theory can't be wholly false, because its consistency implies a true model
[Button]
|
19109
|
The anti-realism debate concerns whether indefeasibility is a plausible aim of inquiry
[Misak]
|
12397
|
Said Plato: 'The things that we feel...
[Sommers,W]
|