Tim Button
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199672172
- eISBN:
- 9780191758393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672172.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Chapter 5 raised problems for external realists who accepted a bracketed empiricist theory of empirical content. Many external realists do, indeed, accept such a theory of empirical content. But in ...
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Chapter 5 raised problems for external realists who accepted a bracketed empiricist theory of empirical content. Many external realists do, indeed, accept such a theory of empirical content. But in fact, no matter how the external realist explains her Cartesianism Principle, similar problems arise. In addition to the veil of sensations, it is possible to consider: a veil of Fregean senses that prevents access to ordinary objects; a veil of phenomena that prevents access to the noumena; a veil of observables that prevents access to unobservables; and a veil of flux that prevents access to the Forms. All external realists must accept that, by their own lights, any statement with empirical content is just more theory and so fails to constrain reference.Less
Chapter 5 raised problems for external realists who accepted a bracketed empiricist theory of empirical content. Many external realists do, indeed, accept such a theory of empirical content. But in fact, no matter how the external realist explains her Cartesianism Principle, similar problems arise. In addition to the veil of sensations, it is possible to consider: a veil of Fregean senses that prevents access to ordinary objects; a veil of phenomena that prevents access to the noumena; a veil of observables that prevents access to unobservables; and a veil of flux that prevents access to the Forms. All external realists must accept that, by their own lights, any statement with empirical content is just more theory and so fails to constrain reference.
