Australian realism

Short description: Philosophical school

Australian realism, also called Australian materialism, is a school of philosophy that flourished in the first half of the 20th century in several universities in Australia including the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of Sydney, and whose central claim, as stated by leading theorist John Anderson, was that "whatever exists … is real, that is to say it is a spatial and temporal situation or occurrence that is on the same level of reality as anything else that exists".[1]: p1 Coupled with this was Anderson's idea that "every fact (which includes every “object”) is a complex situation: there are no simples, no atomic facts, no objects which cannot be, as it were, expanded into facts."[2] Prominent players included Anderson,[3]: p52 David Malet Armstrong, J. L. Mackie, Ullin Place, J. J. C. Smart, and David Stove. The label "Australian realist" was conferred on acolytes of Anderson by A. J. Baker in 1986, to mixed approval from those realist philosophers who happened to be Australian.[4]: p188 David Malet Armstrong "suggested, half-seriously, that 'the strong sunlight and harsh brown landscape of Australia force reality upon us'".[5]

## Contents

* 1 Origins
* 2 Basic tenets
* 3 Philosophy of mathematics
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## Origins

Australian realism began after John Anderson accepted the Challis Chair of Philosophy at the University of Sydney in 1927. His students included philosophers such as John Passmore, J. L. Mackie, David Stove, Eugene Kamenka and David Malet Armstrong. Anderson viewed philosophy historically as a long argument beginning with Thales. Anderson proposed that there was nothing more to being than the spatio-temporal system and that a correct and coherent view of the world involved not only rejecting any sort of deity, but also the extraordinary entities postulated by so many philosophers, from at least the time of Plato to the present day.[6]: chs1-2

Independently from the Andersonians, in Adelaide during the 1950s, the mind–brain identity theory was being developed by two former students of Gilbert Ryle, J. J. C. Smart (then Chair of Philosophy at the University of Adelaide) and Ullin Place.[6]: ch9

## Basic tenets

(1) All entities exist in spatio-temporal 'situations'. 'Situations' are all that exist. All situations have the same ontological status. There are no 'levels' of reality.

(2) All situations have a propositional form — that is, all situations have the form of "A is B".

(3) Reality is infinitely complex and plural. Every fact (which includes every “object”) is a complex situation: there are no simples, no atomic facts, no objects which cannot be expanded into facts.

(4) All situations exist independent of knowledge of them.

(5) Determinism: all entities — objects, events, situations — are caused.

(6) Ethics is concerned with establishing and describing what is Good. This is a positive science. It is not normative.[7]

## Philosophy of mathematics

James Franklin and the "Sydney School" develop the Anderson-Armstrong "one level of reality" view into a philosophy of mathematics that is opposed to both Platonism and nominalism. Their Aristotelian realist philosophy of mathematics holds that mathematics studies properties such as symmetry, continuity and order that can be immanently realized in the physical world (or in any other world there might be).

## See also

* Analytic philosophy
* Australian philosophy
* Logical positivism

## References

1. ↑ Baker, A. J. (1986). Australian Realism: The Systematic Philosophy of John Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-32051-8.
2. ↑ Passmore, John (2001). John Anderson and twentieth century philosophy. Sydney: University of Sydney. http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/anderson/.
3. ↑ Warren, William (1998). Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16850-3.
4. ↑ Sparkes, A. W. (1991). Talking Philosophy. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04223-2.
5. ↑ "A History of Australasian Philosophy". Monash University. http://arts.monash.edu.au/philosophy/research/history/grant81.php.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Franklin, James (2003). Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia. Sydney: Macleay Press. ISBN 1-876492-08-2. https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/contents.html.
7. ↑ Jeffery, Renée, "Australian Realism", Remembering Hedley, ANU E Press, 2008

## External links

* Australian Realism
* D. Khlentzos, 'Realism' in A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
* Black Swans: The formative influences in Australian philosophy
* ABC Radio National - The Philosophers Zone: Metaphysics Down Under
* ABC Radio National - All In The Mind: The Mind-Body Problem Down Under

* v
* t
* e

Analytic philosophy

Related articles|

| Areas of focus|

* Epistemology
* Language
* Mathematics
* Science

|

Turns|

* Aretaic
* Linguistic

Logic|

* Classical
* Mathematical
* Non-classical
* Philosophical

Theories|

* Anti-realism
* Australian realism
* Descriptivist theory of names
* Emotivism
* Functionalism
* Analytical feminism
* Logical atomism
* Logical positivism
* Analytical Marxism
* Neopragmatism
* Neurophilosophy
* Ordinary language
* Quietism
* Scientific structualism
* Sense data

Concepts|

* Analysis (Paradox)
* Analytic–synthetic distinction
* Counterfactual
* Natural kind
* Reflective equilibrium
* Supervenience

| Modality|

* Actualism
* Necessity
* Possibility
* Possible world
* Realism
* Rigid designator

|

Philosophers|

* Nick Bostrom
* Noam Chomsky
* Patricia Churchland
* David Chalmers
* James F. Conant
* Alice Crary
* Daniel Dennett
* Cora Diamond
* Keith Donnellan
* Paul Feyerabend
* Bas van Fraassen
* Gottlob Frege
* Jerry Fodor
* Ian Hacking
* Jaegwon Kim
* Alasdair MacIntyre
* J. L. Mackie
* Ruth Millikan
* Ernest Nagel
* Thomas Nagel
* Derek Parfit
* Karl Popper
* Graham Priest
* John Searle
* Peter Singer
* J. J. C. Smart
* Ernest Sosa
* Barry Stroud
* Charles Taylor
* Michael Walzer

| Cambridge|

* Charlie Broad
* Norman Malcolm
* G. E. Moore
* Bertrand Russell
* Frank P. Ramsey
* Ludwig Wittgenstein

|

Oxford|

* G. E. M. Anscombe
* J. L. Austin
* A. J. Ayer
* Michael Dummett
* Antony Flew
* Philippa Foot
* Peter Geach
* Paul Grice
* R. M. Hare
* Gilbert Ryle
* P. F. Strawson
* Richard Swinburne
* Bernard Williams
* Timothy Williamson

Berlin Circle|

* Carl Gustav Hempel
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Vienna Circle|

* Rudolf Carnap
* Kurt Gödel
* Otto Neurath
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Harvard|

* Roderick Chisholm
* Donald Davidson
* Nelson Goodman
* Christine Korsgaard
* Thomas Kuhn
* Robert Nozick
* Hilary Putnam
* W. V. O. Quine
* John Rawls

Pittsburgh School|

* Robert Brandom
* John McDowell
* Nicholas Rescher
* Wilfrid Sellars

Princeton|

* David Lewis
* Saul Kripke
* Richard Rorty

Notre Dame|

* Robert Audi
* Peter van Inwagen
* Alvin Plantinga

* Category
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