Notes on Realism and Non-Realism

Essential vs. Accidental Properties of Beauty

Beauty possesses both essential and accidental properties, though these won't be elaborated upon in this lecture.

Keys to Understanding: Discovery and Mind-Independent Reality

The core principles for understanding this family of thought are:

  • Discovery

  • Reality is mind-independent

Family of Non-Realism, Anti-Realism, Irrealism

1. Ontological Idealism

  • A form of non-realism.

  • Objects are essentially non-material.

  • Objects would not exist without a mind or spirit to perceive them.

  • George Berkeley's View:

    • Only minds and ideas exist.

    • There is no independent reality.

    • This is a controversial position.

2. Epistemological Relativism

  • What is true or false always depends on one's historical, social, and/or individual perspective.

  • All knowledge is culturally conditioned.

  • Implications:

    • If all knowledge is culturally conditioned, achieving agreement on anything becomes challenging, even basic facts like 2+2=42 + 2 = 4.

    • Example: Computer code functions identically in different countries (e.g., India and the United States), suggesting that not all knowledge is culturally conditioned.

  • Once relativism is refuted, questions arise about what can be known and the nature of reality.

  • Even if complete knowledge is unattainable, some knowledge should be accessible.

3. Ethical Subjectivism

  • Judgments of right and wrong are merely subjective approvals or disapprovals.

  • In contrast to moral realism, ethics is reduced to expressing personal feelings about actions.

  • Example: Saying "Adolf Hitler shouldn't have killed those 6,000,000 Jews" is merely an expression of dislike for Hitler, devoid of objective moral content.