The belief that what is in our mind results from a copying of a reality that is outside has guided our thinking for many centuries. It is a belief, however, that has engendered multiple problems. Among these is the rigid opposition it creates between an “objective” and a “subjective,” and another is the inability of thinkers through the ages to explain how this copying goes about. If we are to avoid these problems and arrive at a more satisfactory understanding of things, therefore, the “realism” that embodies this approach needs to be replaced. And the direction this replacement should take has been indicated in the “critical” philosophy that Kant gave birth to with his Copernican revolution.
In this book, I present this critical philosophy in the form of a “paradigm,” an entire system that provides the needed alternative to realism. A useful avenue into this paradigm is afforded by the concept of “perspective.” When we examine the operation of perspectives in our mental life, we find that they are inescapable: there is no way in which we are able to avoid having one-sided views of things, in which we are able, in either our perceiving or thinking, to come into contact with the actual “real.” In addition, “perspective” has the virtue that it avoids realism's division between “subjective” and “objective.” It consists in both a subjective standpoint from which things are viewed and the “something” that then appears from this standpoint; in its very structure it avoids the gulf that realism creates between these two self-standing domains.
Positing “perspective” as fundamental in the new paradigm, therefore, is not only consistent with Kant's principle that we cannot know the things-in-themselves but also provides a starting point that steers clear of realism's dualism. As I follow out the implications of this new philosophical ground, the obscurities that have long enshrouded “consciousness” begin to dispel. Another element that shows itself to be essential to conscious construction is the “symbol.” For when we inquire into the development that takes place from early mythological thinking to a more advanced stage, we see that language plays an indispensable role: it is by means of the name that we are able to “hold” what is continually changing in our perceptual and conceptual life and endow it with stability; and in this way, a character of “objectivity” is introduced into our mental life, a character that then makes possible the development of science. By following the way in which the two moments of the symbol, the symbol and what is symbolized, vary in the degree to which they are differentiated, I am able to show how the great cultural domains of myth and art, religion and philosophy, science and mathematics arise.
I proceed to ground the new paradigm, then, by taking up the fundamental problems that any philosophical system must resolve. These include the questions of how we come by the contents of consciousness, how we are able to agree with each other on what is “there,” how we may avoid an unacceptable solipsism. Following this more systematic part of my discussion, I turn to implications “perspective” has for our everyday living. I spell out the manner in which perspectives enter into our development as individuals, constitute the dialogue that forges “society,” and help us unravel the mystery of artistic creation. By these means, the principles of the paradigm that can replace realism are delineated, and new purchase is gained on such important human features as consciousness, creativity, and thinking.
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“We find that perspectives are inescapable in our mental life”
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