Notes on Video 6: What is Real?

• Metaphysics studies the nature of the real: ontology considers the real in terms of its parts, cosmology considers reality as a totality
  • Materialism: Democritus: everything is physical atoms; Hobbes: only body in motion is real
  • Idealism: Berkeley: the real is mind and collections of ideas

• Anti-metaphysics
  • verificationism/positivism (Ayer): metaphysical speculation is meaningless
  • Pragmatism: metaphysical distinctions are useless apart from their practical application

• Realism vs. Anti-realism
  • Realism (Searle): reality is independent of our thinking; we assume it in ordinary thinking
    • Plato: even if some realities are constructs, the true reality is beyond appearances (e.g. TV)
  • Anti-realism (Putnam, Taylor): reality is a social, institutional (e.g., linguistic) construct
    • Feminism (C. McKinnon): reality as a social construct is masculine