{"product_id":"9780191654947","title":"Constructing the World","description":"David Chalmers develops a picture of reality on which all truths can be derived from a limited class of basic truths.  The picture is inspired by Rudolf Carnap's construction of the world in Der Logische Aufbau Der Welt.  Carnap's Aufbau is often seen as a noble failure, but Chalmers argues that a version of the project can succeed.  With the right basic elements and the right derivation relation, we can indeed construct the world. The focal point of Chalmers' project is scrutability: the thesis that ideal reasoning from a limited class of basic truths yields all truths about the world.  Chalmers first argues for the scrutability thesis and then considers how small the base can be.  The result is a framework in \"metaphysical epistemology\": epistemology in service of a global picture of the world. The scrutability framework has ramifications throughout philosophy. Using it, Chalmers defends a broadly Fregean approach to meaning, argues for an internalist approach to the contents of thought, and rebuts W.V. Quine's arguments against the analytic and the a priori. He also uses scrutability to analyze the unity of science, to defend a sort of conceptual metaphysics, and to mount a structuralist response to skepticism. Based on Chalmers's 2010 John Locke lectures, Constructing the World opens up debate on central philosophical issues concerning knowledge, language, mind, and reality.","brand":"OUP Oxford","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47119861350640,"sku":"9780191654947","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780191654947_p0.jpg?v=1769912756","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780191654947","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}