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Hermeneutical Realism and Scientific Observation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Patrick A. Heelan
Patrick A. Heelan*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook
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Extract

This paper will summarize positions explained and defended more fully in my book, Space-Perception and The Philosophy of Science (Heelan 1982). The philosophical genre of this paper is that of a hermeneutical phenomenology, it addresses questions from the point of view of such writers as, E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, M. Merleau-Ponty, P. Ricoeur, and H-G. Gadamer (see references). Those who are not familiar with this kind of writing may well find the exposition too brief to be persuasive; those who are, may wonder at the audacity of applying such methods of analysis to the natural sciences. It is unlikely that either group will be entirely pleased with the content of what I have to say.

My principal theses are the following: (1) reality is the content of World, and this comprises whatever is or can be given directly in a public way within perception;

Type
Part III. Scientific Realism and Observation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 77 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

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References

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