World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence

by Stephen C. Pepper

Book Overview

"World hypotheses" correspond to metaphysical systems, and they may be systematically judged by the canons of evidence and corroboration.

In setting forth his root-metaphor theory and examining six such hypotheses-animism, mysticism, formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism-Pepper surveys the whole field of metaphysics. Because this book is an analytical study, it stresses issues rather than men. It seeks to exhibit the sources of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520009940
• ISBN13: 9780520009943
• Release Date: January 1942
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

THE BIG PICTURE

I first read Pepper's most excellent "World Hypotheses" as a philosophy student many years ago. I lost it, checked it out from libraries, and am now purchasing it for my brother and father. And myself. I confess that part of this is quite selfish - my neice is quite philosophically bent, and while two years away from university, she might nevertheless get her hands on this book and get "a leg up" on her colleagues. So much one can say about a book that segments the different "world pictures" into discriminable types. What a gift Pepper has given us. Finished D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover last month and was amazed how much more intelligible reading Pepper's book made Lawrence's. And not just the literati will have augmented understanding, but scientists as well. What physicist can fail to glean Pepper's wisdom in attempting to unify discrete with consolidated mechanism? Or mechanism with organicism? Don't know if it will improve their home lives, but what a jewel this work is!

A sophisticated but very readable primer in epistemology.

At the core of most any deep inquiry, one finds epistemology, questions about how one knows and what one can know. Pepper deeply penetrates the mysteries of epistemology. Having taken an undergraduate degree in philosophy, I can certify that he has successfully distilled the essence of such a degree in 348 very readable pages. If you don't have time to read Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hegel, and William James (all of whom I highly recommend), read World Hypotheses. Pepper lucidly communicates the basic world view of these and many other important philosophers.