projectivism

projectivism
It is a commonplace that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, but all the same we usefully talk of the beauty of things and people as if they are identifiable real properties which they possess. Projectivism denotes any view which sees us as similarly projecting upon the world what are in fact modifications of our own minds. The term is often associated with the view of sensations and particularly secondary qualities found in writers such as Hobbes (De Corpore, 1655) and Condillac (Traité des sensations, 1754). According to this view, sensations are displaced from their rightful place in the mind when we think of the world as coloured or noisy. Other examples of the idea involve things other than sensations. One is that all contingency is a projection of our ignorance ( Spinoza ); another is that the causal order of events is a projection of our own mental confidences in the way they follow from one another ( Hume ). But the most common application of the idea is in ethics and aesthetics, where many writers have held that talk of the value or beauty of things is a projection of the attitudes we take towards them and the pleasure we take in them.
It is natural to associate projectivism with the idea that we make some kind of mistake in talking and thinking as if the world contained the various features we describe it as having, when in reality it does not. But the view that we make no mistake, but simply adopt efficient linguistic expression for necessary ways of thinking, is also held. See also error theory, expressivism, quasi-realism.

Philosophy dictionary. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Projectivism — in philosophy involves attributing ( projecting ) qualities to an object as if those qualities actually belong to it. It is a theory for how people interact with the world, and has been applied in both ethics and general philosophy. There are… …   Wikipedia

  • projective — projectivism …   Philosophy dictionary

  • projectivist — projectivism …   Philosophy dictionary

  • projectivists — projectivism …   Philosophy dictionary

  • realism — /ree euh liz euhm/, n. 1. interest in or concern for the actual or real, as distinguished from the abstract, speculative, etc. 2. the tendency to view or represent things as they really are. 3. Fine Arts. a. treatment of forms, colors, space, etc …   Universalium

  • ethics — /eth iks/, n.pl. 1. (used with a sing. or pl. v.) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture. 2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics;… …   Universalium

  • Meta-ethics — In philosophy, meta ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments. Meta ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally recognized by philosophers, the… …   Wikipedia

  • List of philosophy topics (I-Q) — II and thou I Ching I Ching I proposition I Thou I Thou relationshipIaIamblichus (philosopher)IbYahya Ibn Adi Yahya Ibn Adi Ibn al Arabi Muhyi al Din Ibn al Arabi Abu Bakr Ibn Bajja Abu Bakr Ibn Bājja Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Yahya Ibn as Say igh… …   Wikipedia

  • List of belief systems — Below are words that designate a set or subset of beliefs. This includes dispositional beliefs.Many, but not all, of these words end with the suffix –ism . Words like magnetism , prism , and schism , are not included, because they do not… …   Wikipedia

  • commitment — In some philosophies of mind a commitment may be thought of as functioning slightly differently from a belief. One may be committed to a proposition in the sense of relying on it, or using it to structure explanation and prediction, but entirely… …   Philosophy dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”