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10 - Norman Malcolm's dreams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

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Summary

The first generation of verificationists sought to eliminate metaphysics wholesale by a single application of a single criterion. The second generation recognized that the verificationist attitude could not be summed up in a single formula. The verification principle collapsed as soon as it was stated. Yet the attitude might still be applied to individual problems. Each problem, it could be agreed, had its own pathology, but most would yield to a deft and individual verificationist treatment. Some of the problems were new, engendered by a new science or technology, but others were old. Few problems of epistemology are more ancient than the sceptical doubt we examine in this chapter, ‘Is it possible that with all the experiences before me as I seem to write these words, I am in fact dreaming?’ Plato presents it with his customary elegance:

Socrates. I think that you must often have heard persons ask: – How can you determine whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?

Theaetetus. Indeed, Socrates, I do not know how to prove the one any more than the other, for in both cases the facts precisely correspond; and there is no difficulty in supposing that during all this discussion we have been talking to one another in a dream; and when in a dream we seem to be narrating dreams, the resemblance of the two states is quite astonishing. […]

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1975

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  • Norman Malcolm's dreams
  • Ian Hacking
  • Book: Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?
  • Online publication: 05 November 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627873.011
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  • Norman Malcolm's dreams
  • Ian Hacking
  • Book: Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?
  • Online publication: 05 November 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627873.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Norman Malcolm's dreams
  • Ian Hacking
  • Book: Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?
  • Online publication: 05 November 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627873.011
Available formats
×