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Everything about Phenomenalism
Metaphysical view that physical objects only exist as sensory stimuli
In metaphysics, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist as "things-in-themselves", but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli situated in time and in space. In particular, some forms of phenomenalism reduce all talk about physical objects in the external world to talk about bundles of sense data. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: PhenomenalismA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Categorical phenomenalism about sexual orientation*Influential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen PhilosophieThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: The Dissolution of Objects: Between Platonism and PhenomenalismCited 53 times
- Go sideways: Subjective idealismA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Truthmaker theoryA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun The doctrine that physical objects exist only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
The Dissolution of Objects: Between Platonism and Phenomenalism
Phenomenalism and Essentialism in the Sociology of Deviancy
Phenomenology is not Phenomenalism. Is there such a thing as phenomenology of sport?
Phenomenology and Phenomenalism: Ernst Mach and the Genesis of Husserl’s phenomenology
Defending Phenomenalism
Pragmatism, Phenomenalism, and Truth Talk
Normative Phenomenalism: On Robert Brandom's Practice-Based Explanation of Meaning
Faḫr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī, Ibn al-Hayṯam and Aristotelian Science: Essentialism versus Phenomenalism in Post-Classical Islamic Thought
🆕 Influential since 2022
📚 Books worth reading
Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen PhilosophieEdmund Husserl, F. Kersten · 1899
The Transcendence of the CaveJohn Niemeyer Findlay · 2011- 📕Lebensphilosophie und PhänomenologieMisch, Georg · 1929
Von Husserl zu HeideggerJulius Kraft · 1932- 📕Metaphysical analysisJohn W. Yolton · 1967
Modern Theory of Critical PhenomenaShang-Keng Ma · 2000- 📕IdeasEdmund Husserl · 1931
- 📕Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen PhilosophieEdmund Husserl · 1922
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Subjective idealism Subjective idealism, or empirical idealism or immaterialism, is a form of ontological monism that holds that only minds and mental contents exist. It entails…
- Truthmaker theory Truthmaker theory is "the branch of metaphysics that explores the relationships between what is true and what exists". The basic intuition behind truthmaker…
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- Empiricism Empiricism is an epistemological view in philosophy which holds that true knowledge or justification comes either only or primarily from sensory experience…
- Unobservable An unobservable (also called impalpable) is an entity whose existence, nature, properties, qualities or relations are not directly observable by humans…
- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (commonly called the Principles of Human Knowledge, or simply the Treatise) is a 1710 work, in…
- Neutral monism Neutral monism is an umbrella term for a class of metaphysical theories in the philosophy of mind, concerning the relation of mind to matter. These theories…
- Sense data The theory of sense data is a view in the philosophy of perception, popularly held in the early 20th century by philosophers such as Bertrand Russell,…