Chapter 8: The Structure of the World

نویسنده

  • David J. Chalmers
چکیده

So far, I have argued that all truths are scrutable from a base involving a highly constrained class of expressions. We started with the base PQT I of microphysical, phenomenal, and indexical truths along with a “that’s-all” truth. In chapters 3, 4, and 6 I argued that all truths may well be a priori scrutable from such a base (perhaps with mild expansions, depending on one’s views). In chapter 7, I attempted to minimize this base, for example Ramsifying microphysical truths in order to replace them with more conceptually more fundamental truths. Various candidates for a minimal base have emerged. All of our candidates for such a base include certain background expressions: logical, mathematical, indexical, and that’s-all expressions. The other leading candidates are nomic expressions (concerning lawhood), phenomenal expressions (concerning consciousness), quiddistic expressions (characterizing the unknown categorical properties underlying microphysical dispositions), and spatiotemporal expressions (concerning the distribution of entities in space and time). Various combined packages with some or all of these candidates are possible, as are expanded versions including expressions for secondary qualities, and perhaps normative and intentional expressions. The scrutability bases that result are compact, but they are not yet principled. In their constructions of the world, Carnap and Russell did not allow their basic vocabularies to include arbitrary expressions. They had principled constraints on what sort of expressions might enter their basic vocabulary. Carnap held that that truths in the basic vocabulary must be objective and communicable, and so required that the basic vocabulary be a structural vocabulary. Russell held that all propositions are composed of elements with which we are directly acquainted, and so required that the basic vocabulary be an acquaintance-based vocabulary. These principled constraints were important for Carnap’s and Russell’s epistemological purposes. One might likewise impose principled constraints on what sort of expression can enter a scrutability base. Doing so can yield various principled scrutability theses that are useful for

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تاریخ انتشار 2011