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Monday, June 03, 2024

What is true

Theories are like bubbles: In the end they splash

anarchism                     anthropomorphism          atheism

atomism                       Bayesianism                    behaviourism

Buddhism                     capitalism                       Cartesianism

Christianism                  cohenterism                   communism

communitarism             compatibilism                  computationalism

conceptualism               Confucianism                  connectionism

consequentialism           constitutivism                 constructivism

contextualism                conventionalism              critical rationalism

cynism                          Daoism                          Darwinisme

decisionism                   deconstructivism             deism

determinism                  disjunctivism                  dualism

egalitarianism               eliminativism                   empiricism

enactivism                    Epicurism                       epiphenomalism

essentialism                  existentialism                 expressivism

externalism                   fallibilism                       falsificationism

fascism                         feminism                       Fichteanisme

fictionalism                   fideism                          finitism

formalism                     foundationalism              foundherentism

functionalism                Hegelianism                   Hinduism

historicism                    holism                           humanism

hylomorfism                  idealism                        illusionism

incompatibilism             indeterminism                inductivism

infallibilism                    infinitism                       innatism

internalism                    interpretivism                Jainism

Kantianism                    Leninism                        liberalism

libertarianism                Marxism                         materialism

mentalism                     mercantilism                  modernism

monism                        nationalism                    naturalism

Nazism                         Neo-Marxism                  Neo-Platonism

nihilism                        nominalism                     normativism

objectivism                   Orthodoxism                   panpsychism

particularism                 personalism                    perspectivism

physicalism                   Platonism                       populism

positivism                     postmodernism               pragmatism

probabilism                   proceduralism                 Protestantism

Pyrrhonism                   quietism                          rationalism

realism                         reductionism                    reformism

relativism                     reliabilism                        representationalism

republicanism                Roman-Catholicism          scientism

secularianism                situationism                     socialism

skepticism                     solipsism                        Spinozism

Stalinism                       Stoicism                         structuralism

subjectivism                  Sufism                           Taoism

theism                          Thomism                        totalitarianism

transactionalism             utopism                         veritism

verificationism                vitalism                         voluntarism

                                     wokeism 

Etc. 

The above list is an arbitrary list of -isms that I have found on the internet and in my own computer files. It is certainly not all there is! Moreover, many of the specific -isms in the list have a different meaning according to the theme you are interested in. For example there is realism in political science and in philosophy. The -isms in this list are mainly philosophical but not only. Besides this, many -isms can be subdivided. Take dualism. There is an ontological dualism and a methodological dualism. Ontological dualism can be divided into three types of dualism: substance dualism, property dualism and predicate dualisms. Seen that way, my list is not more than an introduction to the ism-theory. In addition, many -isms have a neo-, post-, and/or anti- version (some are in the list). So, besides positivism, there is a neo-positivism, an anti-positivism and a post-positivism. Or, to mention another limitation of my list: It refers mainly to Western philosophy. The list is also arbitrary and one-sided since it contains only -isms and no -ologies, -anities, etc. (it’s up to you to make such lists).
However, with so many -isms inside and outside philosophy, the main question in this blog is: Which -ism is true or which -isms are true? But is this important? There simply is a view for everybody. Suum cuique (To each their own) 

3 comments:

Paul D. Van Pelt said...

The validity of a truth depends, then, on the context. This relates to my notion of contextual reality, or, put roughly: * truth/reality is whatever you, I or whomever says it is*. Pretty subjective stuff, because that sort of 'truth' is clearly true only in accordance with the interests, motives and preferences (IMPs) of a biased minority.
This is not solely the territory of philosophy---philosophers love to argue, debate and disect ismic topics. They are not the only ones. Where such matters as dogma, doctrine and ideology are involved,there are plenty of biases---IMPs--- and ample room for argument, and so on. Everyone makes a pitch for ideas and notions. And, holders of ideas and notions may change their minds.

HbdW said...

Thank you for your comment, Paul. I agree, but the problem is we place other people in boxes, we place ourselves in boxes and other people place us in boxes. And then (see my quote last week) we tend to think that our box is the whole truth and other boxes are false. And others think so about us. But most of us are a little bit of this or that and so the truth is as well. Is Descartes a rationalist? Yes, but he has also empiricist traits (no wonder, for he was not only a philosopher but also a researcher). And so it is with many -ism: They often give an interesting and useful view on the world, and are useful for explaining and understanding the world. What I wanted to do in this blog is to relativize the box-view. Heated debates between opposite views (“isms”) are useful but many years later often it is so that these -isms were a step forward to something in between of maybe entirely different.

Paul D. Van Pelt said...

Yes, all of that is right Which is why I hold to the contextual reality notion. Taylor, at Stanford, was working on *representation*, before he died. I think there is interconnectivity here. It is multicultural, multilingual and multipolitical.

And, complicated.