"This is not a linear book. It is a complex book. Wimsatt begins with the fact that humans are limited beings confronted with a complex world. This has an array of implications for our understanding of our understanding of the world, and also for our understanding of the world. These are the broadest themes running through the book. They are reflexive. Begin with our understanding of our understanding of the world. We are limited beings and that means we must deploy reasoning strategies suited to our limitations, constructing models that are subject to a variety of idealizations. This in turn has implications for our understanding of the world, which will be piecemeal and approximate. Wimsatt aims to reform philosophical practice in a way that reflects our ways of understanding the world we live in, and also informs us about how we should conduct our science. At the same time, our understanding of ourselves is a scientific enterprise, and that informs our philosophical projects concerning how we understand our understanding of the world."

Jon Lawhead originally shared this post:

A friend of mine just suggested this. Going to definitely pick it up.

Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality // Reviews // Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews is an electronic, peer-reviewed journal that publishes timely reviews of scholarly philosophy books.