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Single Idea 20731

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 4. Anti-realism ]

Full Idea

The doctrine [that all we can know is the relations between subject and object] is in its essence self-contradictory, since our very idea of thing implies that it is something in relation either actually or potentially.

Gist of Idea

The idea that everything is relations is contradictory; relations are part of the concept of things

Source

Stephen S. Colvin (The Common-Sense View of Reality [1902], p.150)

Book Ref

-: 'Philosophical Review' [-], p.150

A Reaction

Ladyman and Ross try to defend an account of reality based entirely on relations. I'm with Colvin on this one. All accounts of reality based either on pure relations or pure functions have a huge hole in their theory.

Related Idea

Idea 14931 That there are existent structures not made of entities is no stranger than the theory of universals [Ladyman/Ross]

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]