Abstract

The central idea is that, since we have no substantial evidence for arguing from personal experience to a mind-independent reality, we must yet suppose such a reality if we are to pursue science or even to engage in interpersonal communication. Hence we quite reasonably assume or postulate such a reality. Such an assumption is not only rational, since it is the best we can do, it is retrojustified by its evident success. It enables us to communicate; it enables us to pursue science; it accounts for our occasional errors in existential judgments, inasmuch as it posits a much richer reality than we can ever hope adequately to comprehend or describe in language.