Stephen Pepper’s World Hypotheses Pepper, S. C. (1942/1972). World hypotheses: A study in evidence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Analytic
Dispersive
Integrative
Formism
Mechanism
Root Metaphor: similarity OR
Root Metaphor: machine
artifact
Synthetic Contextualism
Organicism
Root Metaphor: historic event
Root Metaphor: integrative OR organism
• Knowledge is not systematic. • World is not orderly. • Unpredictable. • Indeterminate. • Lack of precision. • Broad scope.
• Knowledge is orderly and systematic. • World is orderly. • Predictability. • Determinate. • Precision. • Lack of scope. Analytic & Synthetic – polarity of fundamental approaches Dispersive & Integrative – polarity of fundamental approaches Formism
Mechanism Contextualism Organicism
Analytical Synthetic Dispersive Associated with: Realism Platonic Idealism Plato Aristotle Neo-­‐realists And others Root Metaphor: • Similarity • Artifact • Classification of similarities • Focus on the concrete • Descriptive Integrative Associated with: Naturalism Materialism (Realism) Democritus Lucretius Galileo Descartes Hobbes Locke Berkeley Hume Root Metaphor: • Machine • Focus on the quantitative • Cause-­‐and-­‐effect • Reductionist • Focus on laws & principles à ß Strong Tendency to Combine Integrative Dispersive Associated with: Pragmatism Associated with: Absolute Idealism Objective Idealism Peirce James Bergson Dewey Mead Schelling Hegel Green Bradley Bosanquet Royce Root Metaphor: • Historic Event Root Metaphor: • Integration • Organism • Holistic • Focus on relationships • Rejects mechanism, reductionism, vitalism • Focus on contexts in which phenomena occur • Context—dependence à ß Strong Tendency to Combine