Søren Harnow Klausen

University of Southern Denmark studies in philosophy: Reality Lost and Found Søren Harnow Klausen 1st edition

Is there a world out there, independent of the way we experience it, think of it or talk about it? If so, can we know how it is? These questions have been a central concern of philosophy throughout most of its history, and they continue to be the subject of an intense debate between realists and antirealists. In this clearly written and comprehensive book, Søren Harnow Klausen presents an argument for realism about the external world, but also attempts to take the antirealist challenge seriously: a sensible realist must acknowledge the force of the skeptical objections and avoid overstating her own case. The book covers a wide range of themes, from the historical origins of antirealism and the views of Berkeley, Kant, Husserl and the logical positivists, to the most recent developments in epistemology and relevant empirical research in psychology, anthropology and linguistics. Topics also include the definition of realism and its relationship to semantics and theories of truth, the prospect of providing a transcendental argument for realism, inference to the best explanation, externalist theories of justification, the basis of our understanding of mind-independent reality, the relevance of evolutionary biology to the realism issue, and theories of intentionality and perception.