The Value of Apparently Incoherent Positions

Abstract

Incoherence arguments are intended to demonstrate that some philosophical position should be rejected because it is fatally flawed. I review the kinds of fatal flaws targeted in incoherence arguments, and argue that such arguments are not conclusive against the position they target, but merely pose challenges that require greater imagination. Furthermore, I claim that apparently incoherent positions have an instrumental value in expanding the intellectual resources of philosophy.

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Mark Ressler
University of Melbourne (PhD)

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References found in this work

Ways of worldmaking.Nelson Goodman - 1978 - Hassocks [Eng.]: Harvester Press.
Against method.Paul Feyerabend - 1975 - London: New Left Books.
In contradiction: a study of the transconsistent.Graham Priest - 1987 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The coherence theory of truth.Nicholas Rescher - 1973 - Oxford,: Clarendon Press.
Some problems of philosophy.William James - 1911 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers & Ignas K. Skrupskelis.

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