Kant’s Cave: What is a point of view? - Rick Lewis

ATTEND IN PERSON OR ON ZOOM

In many different areas of philosophy, including ethics and philosophy of mind, difficulties arise from – or are made more intractable by – confusions over the viewpoints from which different claims are being made. Thomas Nagel explored this back in 1986 in The View From Nowhere, a book which focuses particularly on the interplay between subjective viewpoints and the objective viewpoint (ie ‘the view from nowhere in particular’). I was inspired by his book but I’m more interested in the differences between different human subjective viewpoints. I’ll take a look at a few of the many resulting philosophical tangles. In each case I’d also like to ask: what exactly is it to have a particular point of view? And is it more accurate to say that each of us has a point of view or that each of us is a point of view?

Rick Lewis is the Founder and Editor of Philosophy Now magazine, the most widely-read philosophy periodical in the English language.

Lecture and discussion! See you there?

This event is sponsored by the Royal institute of Philosophy.
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