<i>Structural-Systematic Philosophy</i> in the Realism-Antirealism Debate

Abstract

This paper presents some contributions of Structural-Systematic Philosophy (SSP) to the realism-antirealism debate. The debate seems to have come to a dead end in recent decades, with nothing new to spur progress or any synthesis between the two positions. The purpose of this paper is to present a well-elaborated theoretical framework that helps us to rethink the foundations of the debate and our conception of language, which should be understood not just as a concrete semiotic system, but also as a dimension of reality itself. After we present some features of the realism-antirealism debate, we introduce the essential factor in overcoming the impasse between realists and antirealists, that is: the ultimate dimension, beyond which there is absolutely nothing and through which the gap between mind/language and the world is overcome. According to SSP, the ultimate dimension cannot be other than the “unrestricted universe of discourse,” namely, the all-embracing dimension of Being as Such and as a Whole. This conception implies the thesis that mind/language is intentionally coextensive with Being. The conclusion will show how the theoretical framework can assure that Being as Such and as a Whole is intelligible and expressible in itself, and how the very structure of the world/Being can be captured by mind/languages.