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CRITIQUE OF IMPURE REASON: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning

Bartlett, Steven (2020) CRITIQUE OF IMPURE REASON: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning. pp. 1-885.

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Abstract

The _Critique of Impure Reason: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning_ comprises a major and important contribution to the philosophy of science. Thanks to the generosity of its publisher, this massive volume of 885 pages has been published as a free open access eBook. It inaugurates a revolutionary paradigm shift in philosophical thought by providing compelling and long-sought-for solutions to a wide range of problems that have concerned philosophers of science as well as epistemologists. The book includes a Foreword by the celebrated German physicist and philosopher of science Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker.¶¶

The principal objective of the study is to identify the unavoidable limitations of the conceptual frameworks in terms of which knowledge, reference, and meaning are possible. The book establishes a bridge between, on the one hand, a model of philosophy as a science — i.e., rigorous proof-based scientific philosophy — and, on the other, the philosophy of science.¶¶

The study develops a logically compelling method that enables us both to recognize the boundaries of what is referentially forbidden — the limits beyond which reference becomes meaningless — and second, to avoid falling victims to a certain broad class of conceptual confusions which lie at the heart of major problems of philosophy of science and epistemology.¶¶

With these ends in view, individual chapters are devoted to a critique of a wide range of fundamental concepts studied by philosophy of science, among them, space, time, space-time, causality, the problem of discovery or invention in general problem-solving, mathematics, and physics, the role of the observer, the perturbation theory of measurement, indeterminacy and uncertainty, complementarity, the ontological status of physical reality, and others.¶¶

The study culminates in a group of chapters devoted to special and general relativity and quantum theory. In these concluding chapters the purpose is to show the extent to which both relativity physics and quantum theory bear out results that have been reached in a logically compelling manner wholly by means of the approach to conceptual analysis developed in the book.¶¶

Based on original research and rigorous analysis combined with extensive scholarship, the _Critique of Impure Reason_ develops a logically self-validating method that at last provides provable and constructive solutions to a significant number of major philosophical problems in philosophy of science and epistemology. Bartlett is the author or editor of more than 20 books and numerous papers.


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Bartlett, StevenJ0000-0001-5081-6778
Keywords: philosophy of science, framework relativity, theory of reference, metalogic of reference, theory of meaning, theory of possibility, philosophy as rigorous science, scientific philosophy, relativity physics, quantum theory, transcendental argument, self-referential argument, reflexivity
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Logic
Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Methodology
Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Ontology
General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Dr. Steven James Bartlett
Date Deposited: 08 Sep 2020 20:39
Last Modified: 08 Sep 2020 20:39
Item ID: 18070
Publisher: Studies in Theory and Behavior
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4008730
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.5281/zenodo.4008730
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Logic
Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Methodology
Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Ontology
General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
General Issues > Laws of Nature
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
General Issues > Structure of Theories
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 15 August 2020
Page Range: pp. 1-885
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18070

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