Puzzles of Reference by Herman Cappelen & Josh Dever

Author:Herman Cappelen & Josh Dever
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192559890
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

5.9 Reference Magnetism and Philosophical Practice

We conclude the discussion of reference magnetism by noting that if the theories of reference magnetism are correct, they have the potential for significant and important consequences for our philosophical practice.

One important philosophical concern is coming to understand certain philosophical concepts, such as knowledge, truth, and justice. One standard way of proceeding is to propose a theory of one of these concepts, and then to test that theory by considering counterexamples to the theory. In his paper ‘What Good are Counterexamples?’ (Weatherson 2003), Brian Weatherson observes that for proponents of reference magnetism, this standard practice can’t be so easily endorsed. Weatherson says:

In assigning a property to a predicate, there are two criteria we would like to follow. The first is that it validates as many as possible of our pre-theoretic beliefs. The second is that it is, in some sense, simple and theoretically important […] Lewis canvasses the idea that there is a primitive ‘naturalness’ of properties which measures simplicity and theoretical significance, and I will adopt this idea.

(Weatherson 2003: 11)

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