Histories and Discourses by Siegfried J. Schmidt

Author:Siegfried J. Schmidt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Radical constructivism, communication studies, culture, philosophy of language, realism, truth, identity, ethics, models of reality, agency, communication, process-dependent reality, dualism, identity, morality
ISBN: 9781845405106
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2016
Published: 2016-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

9

Beyond Dualism

The reflections carried out so far have clearly been governed by the inclination to avoid any realist ontological assertions, and to describe objects of any kind as components or as results of processes. This inclination derives from the kind of non-dualist philosophical approaches that have been developed during the last few years, first and foremost by J. Mitterer. My own position in the context of these approaches will be briefly outlined in what follows.

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The mainstream of European philosophy and science has undoubtedly been moulded by fundamentally dualist convictions. It has been stated often enough that this is the reason why the problems of this philosophical tradition with regard to reality and knowledge, statement and truth, acti on and value, language and reference etc. are irresolvable in principle. They are irresolvable in principle because they all operate with a petitio principii. Once the components of a complementary framework have been separated from each other and declared independent ontic entities, there is no longer any possibility of reconstructing the processuality and reflexivity of the complementary framework, and one finally runs aground on the argumentative ‘riff’ that without consciousness (reference) and description (interruption) nothing ‘exists‘ that could be reflected and described.

As long as the dualist paradigm remains in force, there is no other option than a realist or idealist theory of knowledge (of whatever make-up). In order to make progress with regard to the problems mentioned, a non-dualist approach must be worked out. This will be attempted here. And the attempt will begin with a determined re-positioning of the point of departure of the argument, i.e. the starting point of the discourse. A few comments.

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Dualist theorists usually begin with assumptions of existence, and primarily with the assumption of the existence of subjects and objects - for instance, with the notorious table of the philosopher, which allegedly exists as such and can therefore be regarded as an entity independent of the observer. In making these unquestioned assumptions, one has immediately traded in all the well-known grand philosophical problems like reality, knowledge, truth etc., because this dualist starting operation dishonestly suppresses the fact that assertions of existence no less than denials of existence cannot but be made by agents in concrete communication contexts - where else. We assert or deny in a particular communication situation in a particular way and manner that there is a table before us, that reality exists or not, that we are capable of discovering the laws of nature or not. C. F. von Weizsäcker has found the following succinct formula for this insight: ‘Whenever we speak seriously of reality, we speak of reality, if nobody speaks of reality, reality is not at stake.’ (1980:142)

Here the problem of reality is prudently dis solved by neither asserting nor denying the existence of a reality, and by stating, at the same time, that only in concrete references something like a real thing may play a role as the relatum or referent of a conscious act of reference. Assertions and denials of existence

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