Pluralism

Pluralism

The term pluralism is applied to philosophical positions emphasizing diversity and multiplicity over homogeneity and unity. The word first appeared in the work of Christian Wolff (1679–1754) and was later popularized by William James (1842–1910).

Ontological pluralism

Just as one can distinguish substantival monism (everything is explicable in terms of one thing) from attributive monism (everything is explicable in terms of one kind of thing), so can one discriminate substantival pluralism (everything is explicable in terms of a multiplicity of substances) from attributive pluralism (everything is explicable in terms of a multiplicity of kinds). Sometimes substantival pluralism is called weak pluralism, and attributive pluralism is called strong pluralism.

Opposing the monistic metaphysics of Parmenides' Eleatic School, ancient proponents of pluralism include Empedocles (495–435 b.c.e.), who held that everything is comprised of four elements (earth, air, fire, and water); Anaxagoras (500–428 b.c.e.), who asserted that all things are made of up of bits of every thing; and the atomists Leucippus (fl. 450–420 b.c.e.) and Democritus (460–370 b.c.e.), who asserted that all things are constituted by indivisible particles configured in different ways. Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716 c.e.) can also be considered pluralists, the first because of his claim that reality is ultimately comprised of individual substances, the second because of his view that reality is made up of an infinite number of elemental monads having the fundamental attribute of perception.

Like substantival and attributive monism, substantival and attributive pluralism are logically independent. Because Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) held that there is one substance with an infinity of attributes, he is a substantival monist and an attributive pluralist. Alternately, because Leibniz claimed that all monads have the same attributes, he is an attributive monist and a substantival pluralist.

In A Pluralistic Universe (1909), William James links pluralism and monism to the acceptance or rejection of the doctrine of internal relations. Accordingly, pluralism "means . . . that the sundry parts of reality may be externally related " (p. 274). While the pluralist believes that things are what they are apart from their relationship with other things, the monist claims that each thing is what it is only because of its relationship with other things—and ultimately with the whole containing them.

Cognitive pluralism

While the Western philosophical and theological tradition has generally sought fundamental unity in ontology, truth, and meaning, recent thinking has soundly criticized this project. Among the complex reasons for this is the contemporary rejection of the correspondence theory of truth. If one cannot justifiably speak of a determinate contour of the world apart from human awareness, conception, and language about that world, then it seems there can be no "mirroring" of the world in representation and language, no ultimate criteria by which to adjudicate conflicting interpretations of reality. Accordingly, all that remains are perspectival interpretations based upon discipline-specific assumptions about rationality and truth. Thus cognitive pluralism arises, a situation owing much of its popular development to the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, Richard Rorty, and the French postmodernists.

Jean-Francois Lyotard describes such a pluralism in his work, The Postmodern Condition (1984). Over and against modernity's universalizing reason and discourse, he points to the existence of various epistemic social practices and to the multiplicity of linguistic signifiers, discourse genres, and narratives. Because the assumptions underlying scientific activity are not self-evident, scientific discourse is controlled by various meta-prescriptive rules. Since such rules are locally assumed, there can be no universally applicable, rational discourse. Accordingly, postmodernism privileges antirealism over realism, perspectival epistemology over neutral epistemic and transcendental standpoints, pragmatic truth over the correspondence theory, and local narratives over overarching metanarratives. Cognitive pluralism rejects any foundationalist claim that knowledge is ultimately derivable from indubitable propositions or experiences; it recognizes a diversity of cognitive styles, patterns of rationality, and sensibilities, and it assumes that different sets of justified beliefs can exist alongside each other.

Other pluralisms

One can also identify ethical pluralism, discourse pluralism, and explanatory pluralism. Ethical pluralism claims that there are a number of incommensurable perspectives on the good or just society. (It can also mean the existence of a plurality of self-justifying, fundamental moral principles.) Discourse pluralism affirms the legitimacy of various kinds of discourse in speaking about a region of being. It holds that there can be irreducible levels of description, yet denies that each description refers to entities having metaphysical existence (e.g., possible worlds, numbers, mental states, etc.). Finally, explanatory pluralism asserts that explanations at different levels of description (e.g., psychology and neuroscience) can profitably be offered in the absence of reduction and without claiming the mutual metaphysical existence of the events and entities referred to in each (e.g., Cartesian dualism).

Pluralism, science, and theology

Is genuine dialogue between postmodern science and theology possible, or does the pluralism and localization of postmodern discourse produce epistemological incommensurability? Are there only isolated local narratives whose "truths" cannot be interrelated? Many in the theology-science discussion deny this radical claim. Wentzel van Huyssteen suggests that evolutionary epistemology reveals the biological roots of all rationality and thus provides a suitable basis for postfoundationalist rationality. Niels Gregersen attempts to fit cognitive pluralism into a common framework of rationality by using Nicholas Rescher's pragmatist coherence theory. Gregersen claims that coherence is the critical norm for all types of knowledge and that it provides a middle way between modernity's critical realism and the radical pluralism espoused by many postmodernists.

Explanatory pluralism is also important in the science-theology discussion. Accordingly, events within a common domain having both a physical and theological description can have both a physical and theological explanation. One can, however, question the coherence of explanatory pluralism, citing what Jaegwon Kim has called the "Principle of Explanatory Exclusion": There cannot be two complete and independent explanations of the same event.

Finally, one might ask if and how ontological pluralism, either in its substantival or attributive forms, is more conducive than monism for conceiving how God might act within the universe.

See also Explanation; Ontology; Postfoundationalism; Postmodernism; Pragmatism

Bibliography

gregersen, niels henrik. "a contextual coherence theory for the science-theology dialogue." in rethinking theology and science: six models for the current dialogue, eds. niels henrik gregersen and j. wentzel van huyssteen. grand rapids, mich.: eerdmans, 1998.

james, william. "a pluralistic universe." in essays in radical empiricism and a pluralistic universe, ed. ralph barton perry. new york: dutton, 1971.

kim, jaegwon. "mechanism, purpose and explanatory exclusion." in supervenience and mind: selected philosophical essays, ed. jaegwon kim. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 1993.

lyotard, jean-francois. the postmodern condition: a report on knowledge, trans. geoff bennington and brian massumi. minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1984.

van huyssteen, j. wentzel. duet or dual: theology and science in a postmodern world. harrisburg, pa.: trinity press international, 1998.

dennis bielfeldt