Dr James Miller james.miller@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor
Are All Primitives Created Equal?
Miller, J.T.M.
Authors
Abstract
Primitives are both important and unavoidable, and which set of primitives we endorse will greatly shape our theories and how those theories provide solutions to the problems that we take to be important. After introducing the notion of a primitive posit, I discuss the different kinds of primitives that we might posit. Following Cowling (2013), I distinguish between ontological and ideological primitives, and, following Benovsky (2013), between functional and content views of primitives. I then propose that these two distinctions cut across each other leading to four types of primitive posits. I then argue that theoretical virtues should be taken to be metatheoretical ideological primitives. I close with some reflections on the global nature of comparing sets of primitives.
Citation
Miller, J. (2018). Are All Primitives Created Equal?. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 56(2), 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Online Publication Date | Jun 5, 2018 |
Publication Date | 2018-06 |
Deposit Date | Jul 29, 2020 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 30, 2020 |
Journal | The Southern Journal of Philosophy |
Print ISSN | 0038-4283 |
Publisher | Wiley |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 56 |
Issue | 2 |
Pages | 273-292 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279 |
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Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Miller, J. T. M. (2018). Are All Primitives Created Equal? The Southern Journal of Philosophy 56(2): 273-292 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
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