Presents 15 essays work published over the last 35 years by Nelson Goodman; two Harvard colleagues Hilary Putnam and Israel Scheffler; and C.G. Hemperl, on issues that are central to metaphysics and epistemology. The focus is on the relation between world-versions and the world, or worlds, answering to them. At issue are such contrasts as realism versus idealism, absolutism versus relativsm, and monism versus pluralism. This collection brings together the central figures in the debate since its beginnings and brings into focus the evolution in the understanding of these matters since 1960. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Starmaking brings together a cluster of work published over the past 35 years by Nelson Goodman and two Harvard colleagues, Hilary Putnam and Israel Scheffler, on the conceptual connections between monism and pluralism, absolutism and relativism, and idealism and different notions of realism -- issues that are central to metaphysics and epistemology.
The title alludes to Goodman's famous defense of the claim that because all true representations of stars and other objects are human creations, it follows that in an important sense the stars themselves are made by us. More generally, the argument moves from the fact that our right representations are constructed by us to the claim that the world itself is similarly constructed.
Starmaking addresses the question of whether this seeming paradox can be turned into a serious philosophical view. Goodman and Putnam are sympathetic; Scheffler is the critic.
Although many others continue to write about pluralism, relativism, and constructionalism,Starmaking brings together the protagonists in the debate since its beginnings and follows closely its still developing form and substance, focusing sharply on Goodman's claim that "we make versions, and right versions make worlds."
