Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

our mind. Polarisation does not recognise the possibility of other alternatives.)

OR:

3. Reality is an idea in God's mind.

OR:

4. An external reality may exist, but it can never be known or experienced as it really is. (‘Scepticism’, ‘nihilism’. The notion of ‘structural realism’ may also be added here, which, in metaphysics, is the idea that, whilst the underlying workings of the world may be discovered, what things are really like in themselves cannot be known. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘silence of physics’. (See Bertrand Russell’s, The Analysis of Matter.) It is assuming, of course, that there is actually some underlying structure there to be discovered. Structuralism is a rather difficult term in philosophy as it carries so many different meanings. Note that this search for an underlying structure is similar to a search for an underlying essence and this is explored in some detail below. Also, it should be noted that in morality, psychology and sociology the term structuralism means that relationships are primarily based on power relations — so a very different meaning from what has been discussed above regarding truth and truth-seeking.)

Earlier philosophers often suggested two ways of obtaining knowledge — sensation and reflection, or, sensation and abstraction, or impression and ideas, or, observation and imagination. These were the terms used prior to our modern empiricism and rationalism. The roots of the modern terms are explored a little below. But

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