An Internal Realist Interpretation of the Primitive Ontology Programme
Andrea Oldofredi (University of Lisbon, LanCog)

11 March 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: New interesting developments and extensions of the Primitive Ontology (PO) programme have been recently proposed in order to defeat Laudan’s Pessimistic Meta-Induction on the one hand, and to provide a theory-independent fundamental atomistic ontology of the world on the other. Against this background, the aim of the talk is twofold: I will firstly discuss the main assumptions behind those arguments according to which the PO programme can overcome Laudan’s induction and offer a scale-invariant ontology, showing possible counterexamples to these claims. Secondly, I will argue that the realism introduced by the PO approach can be consistently interpreted as internal realism, i.e., I will show that the internal realist view can faithfully represent the ontological commitment (and its limits) implied by the acceptance of a given PO theory, capturing also the pluralist stance of this programme as originally conceived by David Bohm and John S. Bell.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <[email protected]> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.