Useful fiction
In epistemological philosophy, useful fiction is an assumption or theory that is accepted as an explanation or as a provisional figure of thought, although it is not tenable or provable from a strictly scientific or logical point of view.
Although perhaps wrong, a useful fiction leads to socially adequate results - it fulfills a recognized function in human coexistence - and is therefore retained. Useful fictions get their legitimacy from the practical purpose they fulfill, not from their objective provability. In the case of such a fiction, social utility dominates the question of the truth of the assumptions.
In philosophy, the concept of useful fiction can be assigned to the realms of pragmatism , instrumentalism and naturalism .
Philosophers who use the concept of useful fiction centrally are e.g. B. Hans Vaihinger and Daniel Dennett .
A recurring example of a useful fiction is human free will : Although people's free will cannot be objectively proven, in the legal field the legal presumption is that adult and healthy people are capable of free will determination, and thus their will in the Abide by legal regulations.
The astrology has been called a useful fiction: Your assumptions are scientifically not provable, but astrology met as a system of interpretation of life and finding meaning a function in society.
See also
literature
- Hans Vaihinger: The Philosophy of As If. System of the theoretical, practical and religious fictions of mankind based on an idealistic positivism. With an appendix on Kant and Nietzsche , 1911.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Welger: Some comments on Friedrich Seibold's article “A fundamental mistake in thinking in philosophy” , accessed on November 21, 2009
- ↑ Christopher Weidner: Astrology - a useful fiction ( memento of the original from November 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 127 kB), accessed on November 21, 2009
