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Perspectivism (German: Perspektivismus; also called perspectivalism) is the epistemological principle that perception of and knowledge of something are always bound to the interpretive perspectives of those observing it. While perspectivism does not regard all perspectives and interpretations as being of equal truth or value, it holds that no one has access to an absolute view of the world cut off from perspective.[1] Instead, all such viewing occurs from some point of view which in turn affects how things are perceived. Rather than attempt to determine truth by correspondence to things outside any perspective, perspectivism thus generally seeks to determine truth by comparing and evaluating perspectives among themselves.[1] Perspectivism may be regarded as an early form of epistemological pluralism,[2] though in some accounts includes treatment of value theory,[3] moral psychology,[4] and realist metaphysics.[5]
Early forms of perspectivism have been identified in the philosophies of Protagoras, Michel de Montaigne, and Gottfried Leibniz. However, its first major statement is considered to be Friedrich Nietzsche's development of the concept in the 19th century,[2][4] influenced by Gustav Teichmüller's use of the term some years prior.[6] For Nietzsche, perspectivism takes the form of a realist antimetaphysics[7] while rejecting both the correspondence theory of truth and the notion that the truth-value of a belief always constitutes its ultimate worth-value.[3] The perspectival conception of objectivity used by Nietzsche sees the deficiencies of each perspective as remediable by an asymptotic study of the differences between them. This stands in contrast to Platonic notions in which objective truth is seen to reside in a wholly non-perspectival domain.[4] Despite this, perspectivism is often misinterpreted[3] as a form of relativism or as a rejection of objectivity entirely.[8] Though it is often mistaken to imply that no way of seeing the world can be taken as definitively true, perspectivism can instead be interpreted as holding certain interpretations (such as that of perspectivism itself) to be definitively true.[3]
During the 21st century, perspectivism has led a number of developments within analytic philosophy[9] and philosophy of science,[10] particularly under the early influence of Ronald Giere, Jay Rosenberg, Ernest Sosa, and others.[11] This contemporary form of perspectivism, also known as scientific perspectivism, is more narrowly focused than prior forms—centering on the perspectival limitations of scientific models, theories, observations, and focused interest, while remaining more compatible for example with Kantian philosophy and correspondence theories of truth.[11][12] Furthermore, scientific perspecitivism has come to address a number of scientific fields such as physics, biology, cognitive neuroscience, and medicine, as well as interdisciplinarity and philosophy of time.[11] Studies of perspectivism have also been introduced into contemporary anthropology, initially through the influence of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and his research into indigenous cultures of South America.[13]
The basic principle that things are perceived differently from different perspectives (or that perspective determines one's limited and unprivileged access to knowledge) has sometimes been accounted as a rudimentary, uncontentious form of perspectivism.[14] The basic practice of comparing contradictory perspectives to one another may also be considered one such form of perspectivism ,[15] as may the entire philosophical problem of how true knowledge is to penetrate one's perspectival limitations.[16]
- ^ a b For the perspectivist divergence between truth and value, and its opposition to correspondence theories of truth, see: Nehamas, Alexander (1998). The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 145, 148. ISBN 9780520211735. OCLC 37132573. Including its pre-Nietzschean forms, perspectivism traditionally holds that: "All seeing occurs from some point of view, in accordance with our interests. There is neither a view from nowhere nor a view from everywhere; [...] Though we have no absolute view, cut off from the perspective, it does not follow that all perspectives are 'equally valid.' On the contrary, some perspectives are better than others. We know this not because we have the ability to compare perspectives to whatever lies outside any perspective, but because we can (and do) compare perspectives to one another." Miner, Robert (2017). "Gay science and the practice of perspectivism". Nietzsche and Montaigne. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 64. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66745-4_3. ISBN 9783319667447. OCLC 994692085. For concordance with scientific and contemporary forms of perspectivism, see: Agazzi, Evandro (2016). "Scientific realism within perspectivism and perspectivism within scientific realism". Axiomathes. 26 (4): 349–365. doi:10.1007/s10516-016-9304-4. S2CID 254256157.
- ^ a b Sandywell, Barry (2012). "'Perspectives, Philosophical' and 'Perspectivism'". Dictionary of Visual Discourse: A Dialectical Lexicon of Terms. Routledge. pp. 458–459. doi:10.4324/9781315577098. ISBN 9781409401889. OCLC 502453053.
- ^ a b c d Nehamas, Alexander (1998). The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 143–150. ISBN 9780520211735. OCLC 37132573. See especially page 148.
- ^ a b c Anderson, R. Lanier (Summer 2017). "Friedrich Nietzsche". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ For the relation of perspectivism to realism, see the following (and their containing sources):
- Agazzi, Evandro (2016). "Scientific realism within perspectivism and perspectivism within scientific realism". Axiomathes. 26 (4): 349–365. doi:10.1007/s10516-016-9304-4. S2CID 254256157.
- Conway, Daniel (1999). "Beyond Truth and Appearance: Nietzsche's Emergent Realism". In Babich, Babette E. (ed.). Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 204. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 109–122. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_9. ISBN 978-90-481-5234-6.
- Miner, Robert (2017). "Gay science and the practice of perspectivism". Nietzsche and Montaigne. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 80. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66745-4_3. ISBN 9783319667447. OCLC 994692085.
- ^ Meyer, Matthew (2014). Reading Nietzsche through the Ancients: An Analysis of Becoming, Perspectivism, and the Principle of Non-Contradiction. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 210. ISBN 9781934078419.
- ^ For Nietzschean perspectivism as a form of realist antimetaphysics, see especially:
- Conway, Daniel (1999). "Beyond Truth and Appearance: Nietzsche's Emergent Realism". In Babich, Babette E. (ed.). Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 204. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 109–122. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_9. ISBN 978-90-481-5234-6.
- Doyle, Tsarina (2005). Thornton, Stephen (ed.). "Nietzsche on the Possibility of Truth and Knowledge" (PDF). Minerva. 9: 261–286. (Also as a form of contextualism and anti-foundationalism. Note that while Nietzsche rejects traditional metaphysical realism, he is nevertheless a realist in an antimetaphysical sense.)
- ^ Lacewing, Michael. "Nietzsche's perspectivism" (PDF). Philosophy for A Level. Routledge. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-21.
- ^ Examples of perspectivism in analytic philosophy include:
- Mou, Bo (2009). Substantive Perspectivism: An Essay on Philosophical Concern with Truth. Synthese Library. Vol. 344. Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2623-1. ISBN 9789048126224. OCLC 401153973.
- Sadegh-Zadeh, Kazem (2015) [2012]. "Perspectivism". Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine. Philosophy and Medicine. Vol. 119 (2nd ed.). Dordrecht; New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 865–874. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9579-1_27. ISBN 9789401795784. OCLC 907193007.
- Colomina Almiñana, Juan José (2018). Formal Approach to the Metaphysics of Perspectives: Points of View as Access. Synthese Library. Vol. 392. Cham: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-73655-6. ISBN 9783319736549. OCLC 1029608931.
- ^ Examples of perspectivism in philosophy of science include:| Giere, Ronald N. (2006). Scientific Perspectivism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/9780226292144 (inactive 31 January 2024). ISBN 0226292126. OCLC 63195906.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)| Brown, Matthew J. (June 2009). "Models and perspectives on stage: remarks on Giere's Scientific Perspectivism". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 40 (2): 213–220. Bibcode:2009SHPSA..40..213B. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2009.03.001.| Callebaut, Werner (March 2012). "Scientific perspectivism: a philosopher of science's response to the challenge of big data biology". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 43 (1): 69–80. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.10.007. PMID 22326074.| Agazzi, Evandro (December 2016). "Scientific realism within perspectivism and perspectivism within scientific realism". Axiomathes. 26 (4): 349–365. doi:10.1007/s10516-016-9304-4. S2CID 254256157.| Massimi, Michela; McCoy, Casey D., eds. (2019). Understanding Perspectivism: Scientific and Methodological Prospects. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 20. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315145198. hdl:20.500.12657/25065. ISBN 9781138503069. S2CID 198727223. - ^ a b c Massimi, Michela; McCoy, Casey D. (2019). "Introduction". In Massimi, Michela; McCoy, Casey D. (eds.). Understanding Perspectivism: Scientific and Methodological Prospects. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 20. New York: Routledge. pp. 1–9. doi:10.4324/9781315145198. hdl:20.500.12657/25065. ISBN 9781138503069. S2CID 198727223.
- ^ For comparisons of contemporary scientific perspectivism with Nietzschean perspectivism, see:
- Hales, Steven D. (2020). "Nietzsche's Epistemic Perspectivism". In Crețu, Ana-Maria; Massimi, Michela (eds.). Knowledge from a Human Point of View. Synthese Library (Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science). Vol. 416. Springer, Cham. pp. 19–35. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27041-4_2. ISBN 978-3-030-27040-7. S2CID 213628622.
- Agazzi, Evandro (2016). "Scientific realism within perspectivism and perspectivism within scientific realism". Axiomathes. 26 (4): 349–365. doi:10.1007/s10516-016-9304-4. S2CID 254256157.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CesarinoVanzolini2014was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ See discussion of naive perspectivism, in: Conant, James F. (2005). "The Dialectic of Perspectivism, I" (PDF). Sats: Nordic Journal of Philosophy. 6 (2). Philosophia Press: 5–50.
- ^ See discussion of conflicting point of view perspectivism, in: Miner, Robert (2017). "Gay science and the practice of perspectivism". Nietzsche and Montaigne. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 59, 60. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66745-4_3. ISBN 9783319667447. OCLC 994692085.
- ^ See discussion of the problem of perspectivism, in: Van Riel, Gerd (2017). "Perspectivism in Plato's Views of the Gods". Plato and the Power of Images. Mnemosyne, Supplements. Vol. 405. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. pp. 107–120. doi:10.1163/9789004345010_008. ISBN 9789004345003.