Boundaries, Conventions, and Realism

In Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & Matthew H. Slater (eds.), Carving nature at its joints: natural kinds in metaphysics and science. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. pp. 129–153 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Are there any bona fide boundaries, i.e., boundaries that carve at the joints? Or is any boundary —hence any object—the result of a fiat articulation reflecting our cognitive biases and our so-cial practices and conventions? Does the choice between these two options amount to a choice between realism and wholesome relativism?

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Teoria e pratica dei confini.Achille C. Varzi - 2005 - Sistemi Intelligenti 17 (3):399–418.
Boundaries in Reality.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2012 - Ratio 25 (4):405-424.
The formal ontology of boundaries.Barry Smith & Achille C. Varzi - 1997 - Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy 5 (5).
Fiat and Bona Fide Boundaries.Barry Smith & Achille C. Varzi - 2000 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (2):401-420.
2 Induction, Samples, and Kinds.Peter Godfrey-Smith - 2011 - In Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & Matthew H. Slater (eds.), Carving nature at its joints: natural kinds in metaphysics and science. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. pp. 33.
Drawing Boundaries.Barry Smith - 2019 - In Timothy Tambassi (ed.), The Philosophy of GIS. Springer. pp. 137-158.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
1,194 (#15,886)

6 months
138 (#34,645)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Achille C. Varzi
Columbia University

Citations of this work

Against the New Metaphysics of Race.David Ludwig - 2015 - Philosophy of Science 82 (2):244-265.
Robustness, Diversity of Evidence, and Probabilistic Independence.Jonah N. Schupbach - 2015 - In Uskali Mäki, Stéphanie Ruphy, Gerhard Schurz & Ioannis Votsis (eds.), Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science. Cham: Springer. pp. 305-316.
Boundaries in Reality.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2012 - Ratio 25 (4):405-424.

View all 22 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The World Well Lost.Richard Rorty - 1972 - Journal of Philosophy 69 (19):649-665.
On drawing lines on a map.Barry Smith - 1995 - In Frank A. U., Kuhn W. & Mark D. M. (eds.), Spatial Information Theory: Proceedings of COSIT '95. Springer. pp. 475-484.
Unnatural Science.Catherine Z. Elgin - 1995 - Journal of Philosophy 92 (6):289.
Words, Works, Worlds.Nelson Goodman - 1975 - Erkenntnis 9 (1):57 - 73.

View all 10 references / Add more references