PhilSci Archive

Perspectival Objectivity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Observer-Dependent Reality

Evans, Peter W. (2020) Perspectival Objectivity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Observer-Dependent Reality. [Preprint]

This is the latest version of this item.

[img]
Preview
Text
Perspectival Objectivity.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (370kB) | Preview

Abstract

Building on self-professed perspectival approaches to both scientific knowledge and causation, I explore the potentially radical suggestion that perspectivalism can be extended to account for a type of objectivity in science. Motivated by recent claims from quantum foundations that quantum mechanics must admit the possibility of observer-dependent facts, I develop the notion of 'perspectival objectivity', and suggest that an easier pill to swallow, philosophically speaking, than observer-dependency is perspective-dependency, allowing for a notion of observer-independence indexed to an agent perspective. Working through the case studies of colour perception and causal perspectivalism, I identify two places within which I claim perspectival objectivity is already employed, and make the connection to quantum mechanics through Bohr's philosophy of quantum theory. I contend that perspectival objectivity can ensure, despite the possibility of perspective-dependent scientific facts, the objectivity of scientific inquiry.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Evans, Peter W.p.evans@uq.edu.au0000-0003-0214-4748
Keywords: Perspectivalism; objectivity; observer dependency; quantum mechanics
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User: Dr. Peter W. Evans
Date Deposited: 28 Feb 2020 02:52
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2020 02:52
Item ID: 16956
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date: 25 February 2020
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16956

Available Versions of this Item

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item