''The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality)'' is a book by

Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNama ...

in which he criticizes the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn.

Title

In 1972, Morris met with Kuhn at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, where Morris was a graduate student and Kuhn was his academic adviser, to discuss a paper Morris had written. The conversation grew increasingly heated as they disagreed regarding some fundamental ideas – specifically regarding

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light ...

's theory of

displacement current In electromagnetism, displacement current density is the quantity appearing in Maxwell's equations that is defined in terms of the rate of change of , the electric displacement field. Displacement current density has the same units as electric ...

, and the concept of incommensurability. Morris has claimed that Kuhn eventually threw a

cut glass Cut glass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the use of moulding, but the original technique of cutting glass on an abrasive wheel is still u ...

ashtray full of cigarette butts at Morris. Following the incident Morris left Princeton. Morris uses the ashtray as a metaphor for the material reality that Morris believes Kuhn denied, as well what Morris views as Kuhn's intolerance of dissent from his theories.

Content

In the book, Morris argues that Kuhn was a

relativist Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...

and a philosophical idealist, contrasting his interpretation of Kuhn's views with his own epistemology, drawing on

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

and Saul Kripke, which he describes as "investigative realism", based on the belief that there is an objective reality whilst rejecting

naïve realism In philosophy of perception and philosophy of mind, naïve realism (also known as direct realism, perceptual realism, or common sense realism) is the idea that the senses provide us with direct awareness of objects as they really are. When refe ...

. Morris accepts that investigation of truth involves considerable effort, with no guarantee of reaching the absolute truth, and that knowledge can be attained "through reason, through observation, through investigation, through thought, through science". The book is written in a style that utilizes images that correspond with many of the arguments in the text. There is artwork on nearly every page that is gathered from all over the world. From discussing Kuhn and Paradigm shift, to interviewing Noam Chomsky, Morris utilizes these varying types of images (what he calls "illustrations") to supplement the information presented.

Reception

In a piece for the Los Angeles Review of Books,

Philip Kitcher Philip Stuart Kitcher (born 20 February 1947) is a British philosopher who is John Dewey Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University. He specialises in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology, the philosophy of mathema ...

compared Morris' critique to

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

appeal to the stone Appeal to the stone, also known as argumentum ad lapidem, is a logical fallacy that dismisses an argument as untrue or absurd. The dismissal is made by stating or reiterating that the argument is absurd, without providing further argumentation. Thi ...

regarding George Berkeley's belief in subjective idealism, stating that "Morris has no interest in considering what Kuhn might have had in mind", and rejecting his characterisation of Kuhn as a relativist and an irrealist.

References

External links

The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality)
2018 non-fiction books University of Chicago Press books Philosophy of science books Epistemology literature Works about Thomas Kuhn Works by Errol Morris {{philo-book-stub