"There is, I think, no theory-independent way to reconstruct phrases like 'really there'; the notion of a match between the ontology of a theory an its real' counterpart in nature now seems to me illusive in principle ... I do not doubt, for example, that Newton's mechanics improves on Aristotle's and that Einstein's improves on Newton's as instruments for puzzle-solving. But I can see in their succession no coherent direction of ontological development ... if the position be relativism, I cannot see that the relativist loses anything needed to account for the nature and development of the sciences." (p 206-7)"
What is missing in ontology is values and what is missing in values is a theory that proposes just what might be ontological values. Conceding that all such theories would be fallible would be an apt Peircean given. Conceding that the presence of values such as democracy, tolerance, helpfulness and non-idolatry in the area reserved for the ontological would open up a realm that might best be said to have been opened by Peirce. Even such an elementary supposition would be a major stride in developing such a theory.. We might add in Nietzsche since he deserves credit for the notion of revaluing values even if he never succeeded in identifying or articulating what might be ontological values.
Global Online Privacy
