Not available to order
Publication date:
01 November 2012Length of book:
180 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739177242
Simplicity affords a new way of thinking about philosophical matters. In this book, the dualistic, true/false approach of formal logic is replaced by a three-part basis for thought. This basis consists of the simplicity categories of reason: simplicity, complexity, and nothingness. The category of simplicity is paradoxical, that of complexity is unproblematic, and that of nothingness is self-contradictory. These categories are to be applied to ontological categories, such as those of substance, self, or causality, thereby providing a clarification of the philosophical issue in question. The notion of perspective is integral to the simplicity way of thinking. A particular entity − such as the self − may be conceived as simple in one perspective, while being complex or nothing in another. Combined with the categories of simplicity, the notion of perspective is used to reveal a type of conceptual conflict that differs from contradiction. So, for example, the simplicity way of thinking better represents the relation between competing scientific theories − such as the wave and particle theories of radiation − as a form of perspectival incompatibility, rather than contradiction. From this basis, the book moves on to the distinction between two forms of simplicity: analytic and synthetic, which can respectively be conceived of as a point, and as a whole. Again the notion of perspective is employed: what is analytically simple in one perspective may well be synthetically simple in another. The application of the simplicity way of thinking to philosophy (as well as to other areas, such as mathematics and physics), of which there are many examples in this book, enhances our understanding by illuminating the conceptual relations involved in intellectually problematic situations.
The philosophers before the twentieth century used to build their philosophies on grand visions of the world and reality. With the advent of analytical philosophy, the usefulness of this approach was called in question and the focus moved to the methodology of philosophy. Now the primary goal was to reach solid conclusions with as precise methods as possible, to the price of considering only narrow problems. In the present book, Craig Dilworth succeeds in combining the best in the classical and the modern tradition. In his youth, he had an overwhelming vision of the metaphysical character of the world and reality, a character which he calls Simplicity. In the book, he gives a mature exposition of this idea. Using the methods of analytical philosophy, he draws conclusions from this insight — for philosophy in general and for an understanding of the nature and role of metaphysics in particular. Irrespective of whether a reader agrees with everything in the book or not, it is always interesting and stimulating reading.