Single Idea 18692

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 2. Realism]

Full Idea

External realists have three principles: Independence - the world is objects that are independent of mind, language and theory; Correspondence - truth involves some correspondence of thoughts and things; Cartesian - an ideal theory might be false.

Gist of Idea

Realists believe in independent objects, correspondence, and fallibility of all theories

Source

Tim Button (The Limits of Reason [2013], 01.1-3)

Book Reference

Button,Tim: 'The Limits of Realism' [OUP 2013], p.8


A Reaction

[compressed; he cites Descartes's Demon for the third] Button is setting these up as targets. I subscribe to all three, in some form or other. Of course, as a theory approaches the success implying it is 'ideal', it becomes highly likely to be accurate.

Related Idea

Idea 18695 An ideal theory can't be wholly false, because its consistency implies a true model [Button]