Irrealism is a philosophical position first advanced by

Nelson Goodman Henry Nelson Goodman (7 August 1906 – 25 November 1998) was an American philosopher, known for his work on counterfactuals, mereology, the problem of induction, irrealism, and aesthetics. Life and career Goodman was born in Somerville, Mas ...

in "Ways of Worldmaking", encompassing

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

, and

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

Nelson Goodman's irrealism

Irrealism was initially motivated by the debate between

phenomenalism In metaphysics, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli (e.g. redness, hardness, softness, sweetness, etc.) situated in time and in ...

and

physicalism In philosophy, physicalism is the metaphysical thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substanc ...

. Rather than viewing either as prior to the other, Goodman described them both as alternative "world-versions", both useful in some circumstances, but neither capable of capturing the other in an entirely satisfactory way, a point he emphasizes with examples from psychology. He goes on to extend this epistemic pluralism to all areas of knowledge, from equivalent

formal system A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system. A form ...

s in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

(sometimes it is useful to think of points as primitives, sometimes it is more useful to consider lines the primitive) to alternative schools of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

(for some paintings thinking in terms of representational accuracy is the most useful way of considering them, for others it is not). However, in line with his consideration of

and

, Goodman goes beyond saying merely that these are "world-versions" of ''the'' world, instead he describes worlds as "made by making such versions".

Metaphysically Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of consci ...

, Goodman's irrealism is distinct from

anti-realism In analytic philosophy, anti-realism is a position which encompasses many varieties such as metaphysical, mathematical, semantic, scientific, moral and epistemic. The term was first articulated by British philosopher Michael Dummett in an argument ...

though the two concepts are frequently confused. "We are not speaking in terms of multiple possible alternatives to a single actual world but of multiple actual worlds." He makes no assertions regarding "the way the world is" and that there is no primary world-version i.e. "no true version compatible with all true versions." As Goodman says, "Not only motion, ... but even reality is relative." It follows that Goodman accepts many forms of realism and anti-realism without being troubled by the resulting contradictions.

Other irrealists

The artist Tristan Tondino writes, "Realism is an Irrealism. Reality is plurality - we partially create it, we must open our universes and our perceptions to all new versions that may promote the concept of human rights and expand its possibilities." The sociologist

Nikolas Rose Nikolas Rose is a British sociologist and social theorist. He is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Research School of Social Sciences, in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University and Honorary Profes ...

subscribes to irrealism in his ''Powers of Freedom'', though his irrealism differs from Goodman's in being 'technical, not psychologistic, furthering Goodman's assertions of the human mind are only capable of a limited understanding and that it is a construct built upon itself." Philosopher

Jan Westerhoff Jan Christoph Westerhoff is a German philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor (highest academic rank), Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology a ...

discusses irrealism in his paper "The consequences of living in a virtual world generated by our brain"

Other forms of irrealism

The philosophical term may be used in more specific or arguably narrower senses, such as "colour irrealism".

Footnotes

References

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External links

* {{cite SEP , url-id=goodman , title=Nelson Goodman , last=Cohnitz , first=Daniel, last2=Rossberg , first2=Marcus
"On Star-Making"
by Nelson Goodman.
''Goodman and Putnam on the Making of Worlds''
by Damian Cox

Physics research paper in

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...