Access to the Abstract: Intuition as Mental Modelling
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Søren Harnow Klausen
Abstract
The epistemology of abstract objects is a somewhat neglected topic in contemporary philosophy. I argue that a satisfactory account of our capacity for knowing abstract objects must consist in more than formal requirements. It must also comprise an investigation of the nature of the relevant processes of belief formation, notably the mental process known as intuition. A promising approach is what I call “constructionism” (not to be confused with antirealist forms of constructivism), the main ideas of which can be found in Kant, Peirce, Husserl and contemporary cognitive scientists like Laird-Johnson and Kosslyn. According to constructionism, we come to know complex abstract objects by carrying out processes of mental construction or performing mental experiments on the contents of lower-order mental acts. I discuss the strengths and limitations of the theory and suggest some possible further developments.
© Philosophia Press 2006
Articles in the same Issue
- Spiritual Objectivity. A systematic expansion of the body-mind-problem
- Finding a Place for Moral Theory
- Too Many Dispositional Properties
- The Problem of the Criterion, Skepticism, and the Cartesian Circle
- Limit-situation. Antinomies and Transcendence in Karl Jaspers' Philosophy
- Access to the Abstract: Intuition as Mental Modelling
- Entity Realism Meets the Pessimistic Meta-Induction Argument. The World is not Enough
- The Pessimistic Meta-Induction. A Response to Jacob Busch
- Casullo on the Nature and Existence of A Priori Justification
- Steen Ebbesen and Carl Henrik Koch, The Danish History of Philosophy, 5 volumes, Gyldendal 2002-2004
- Ole Fogh Kirkeby, Eventum tantum - begivenhedens ethos, 592 pages, Forlaget Samfundslitteratur, Copenhagen, 2005
- Alois Pichler and Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen no 17, Bergen 2005. 420 pages. ISBN 82-91071-20-9
Articles in the same Issue
- Spiritual Objectivity. A systematic expansion of the body-mind-problem
- Finding a Place for Moral Theory
- Too Many Dispositional Properties
- The Problem of the Criterion, Skepticism, and the Cartesian Circle
- Limit-situation. Antinomies and Transcendence in Karl Jaspers' Philosophy
- Access to the Abstract: Intuition as Mental Modelling
- Entity Realism Meets the Pessimistic Meta-Induction Argument. The World is not Enough
- The Pessimistic Meta-Induction. A Response to Jacob Busch
- Casullo on the Nature and Existence of A Priori Justification
- Steen Ebbesen and Carl Henrik Koch, The Danish History of Philosophy, 5 volumes, Gyldendal 2002-2004
- Ole Fogh Kirkeby, Eventum tantum - begivenhedens ethos, 592 pages, Forlaget Samfundslitteratur, Copenhagen, 2005
- Alois Pichler and Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen no 17, Bergen 2005. 420 pages. ISBN 82-91071-20-9
