Perspectivism

Perspectivity and perspectivism denote philosophical teachings that say that the reality of position and characteristics of the observing individual is dependent. The human thinking, perception and action is finite, since it is subject to various constraints resulting from the conditions of time and space, individual predispositions, environment and situation; For example, cultural or social nature ( see epistemology ). In a narrower sense refers to the spatial perspective "Perspective " and perspectivity Projective.

Philosophy

The concept of perspective and the associated notion of viewpoint led Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in philosophy. In his theodicy and in his Monadology perspectivity is a fundamental property of the individual monads, the most basic units of the ( spiritual ) world, with its necessary different points in the given world.

" Et comme une même ville regardée de toute autre differens côtés paroist et est comme multipliée perspectivement, il arrive en même que par la infinie multitude of substances simple, comme il ya de autant differens univers qui ne sont que les perspectives pourtant d ' un seul selon les points de differens veue de chaque monad. "

" And as one and the same city viewed from different sides, each appears quite different, as it is, as reproduced in perspective, it is in accordance with the infinite set of simple substances that speak are as many universes, but only the perspectives a single universe among the various aspects of each monad is. "

This perspective view of man facing the assumed divine timelessness and ubiquity that helps from this total perspective to absolute consciousness. An example of perspective thinking in Leibniz's philosophy of psychophysical parallelism, which posits a fundamental dual perspective ( mind-body problem). Wilhelm Wundt characterized in his commemorative speech at Leibniz's two-hundredth anniversary of his death his thinking style as it could also apply to Wundt: " ... the principle of equality of complementary points of view " in his thinking plays an important role, points of view, the " complement each other, at the same time may also appear as opposites that cancel only at a deeper consideration of the things themselves. "

But only by Immanuel Kant, so says Gert König, the concept of position have received a more radical significance, for Kant stressed that the philosophy they claim to be science, the human to human thought his situation must refer appropriate position.

Influential was the philosophy of language perspectivism Ludwig Wittgenstein. The language takes place after " practices " that we all speak in language games. You decide what words mean, they determine the reference system. The given us in our language community language is relative to the point at which we find ourselves, and we will design different images depending on the perspective of reality, eg the philosophical world or the other perspective, scientific or artistic world.

King mentioned formulated by Teichmüller position that all philosophical systems are to be considered from the point of perspective as " projective representations of our cognitive contents " and cites Friedrich Nietzsche statements in Beyond Good and Evil on "The Perspective " as " the fundamental condition of all life ." "There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective ' recognition '; and the more affects we allow to come across a thing to words, the more eyes, different eyes, we know how to use us for the same thing, the more complete will our ' concept ' of this thing, our 'objectivity' be. " Expressions such as perspective, horizon, viewpoint, are characteristic of the designed by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau -Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception. At Alfred North Whitehead, who represent the objective reality of perspectives, following, George Herbert Mead have explained:

" The notion of perspective as something of nature 's own ... an unexpected gift of ... physics to philosophy. Perspectives are neither distortion of any perfect structures even selections of consciousness from a subject set whose reality is to be found in a world of things in themselves ( noumenal world). They are in their mutual relatedness successive nature, known to science ". "

From King's perspective, it belongs to the modern conception of the history of science to describe the basic perspectives - change.

Psychology

Fechner raised his perspective approach produced:

" ... If someone is inside a circle, so is its convex side to him completely hidden; if it is outside, conversely, the concave side of the convex ceiling. Both sides are just as inseparable as the mental and physical side of man and have them hold up relatively well as inner and outer side: but it is also equally impossible to see from a vantage point in the plane of the circle, both sides of the circle at the same time than from a standpoint in the realm of human existence these two sides of man. Only as we change our perspective, the side of the circle, we see changes, and hiding behind the saw. But the circle is just a picture and it is the question of the cause. "

As examples of psychological research to perspectivity the reference systems and regularities of spatial perception, binocular depth perception, Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology and Carl Friedrich Graumann's (1960 ) should be mentioned foundations of phenomenology and psychology of perspectivity.

Ethnology

In anthropology, the concept of perspectivism is mainly used by the Brazilian researcher Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, to describe the worldview of Arawaté Indians ( Amazonia ). According to Viveiros de Castro is at the Arawaté the animals - as well as inanimate ( from a Western point of view) Natural phenomena, plants and spirits - awarded an equipped with subjectivity and intentionality spiritual quality that they qualify as "persons". The physical manifestation of this non-human persons is considered as a shell that hides the real and internal humanoid form - because originally about Animals were human. Therefore, people with other "persons" in "social" are able to enter relationships: as cultivated plants are considered blood relatives of women who hunt animals as relatives of the hunters. The hidden internal quality is visible to the shaman who can communicate with her. The different people have different ways of viewing the world ( perspectivism ): under normal circumstances, the Amazon Indians see themselves as people, animals as animals and plants as plants; but animals, plants and spirits see themselves also as human - they take their own habits as "culture" and its social organization as "Company" true, they see their food as human food (eg comprehend Jaguars blood as Maniokbier ) and their physical attributes (eg, claws, feathers, fur ) and body jewelry. From the perspective of predators and the spirits are Indians as hunting animals, from the perspective of game animals, however, they are seen as spirits or predators.

Perspectivism as a cognitive attitude

Perspectivism is an epistemological attitude and a philosophical belief that a fundamental dependence of the knowledge of the position ( reference system ) and the properties of the observing individual exists. The perspectivist objectivism assumes an objective reality that is perceived differently due to the different positions and properties of the observer (see Leibniz ). The perspectivist subjectivism is based on a diversity of realities (see Friedrich Nietzsche and Hans Vaihingen ). Giere (2006) argues in his book Scientific perspectivism for a middle position between objectivism (realism ) and Constructivism: 'The result will be an account of science did brings observation and theory, perception and conception, closer together than theyhave Seemed to objectivist accounts ".

Perspectivism is related to pluralism, relativism and constructivism, but it can get a stronger version, by the categories of the reference systems and the individual positions defined, requires the mutual complementarity of perspectives into an overall picture and the necessary to capture the full reality Perspective change are emphasized.