Language, Ontology and Intertheoretical Relationships: In favor of a Genuine Ontological Pluralism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2011.747n1005Keywords:
Inter-theoretical relationships, reduction, emergence, functional relationships, ontological pluralism, Kantian realismAbstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the problem of intertheoretical relationships from the perspective of an ontological pluralism based on a Kantian rooted realism. For this purpose we begin by recalling the classical concept of reduction and its shortcomings, stressing the metaphysical assumptions involved in such conception. Next, we analyze another outspread position that conceives intertheoretical relations in terms of functional relationships, in order to underline certain misguided conclusions usually drawn from that kind of relationship. This task leads us to point out a problem usually ignored in these discussions, the problem about the way in which the system under study is defined. Finally, we introduce a general characterization of our Kantian rooted ontological pluralism, and try to show how this pluralism, in its synchronic version, allows us to face the problem of inter-theoretical relations in a philosophically fruitful way.
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