RB 65

sary, to investigate whether or not a real thing actually exists; for the determination of existence is not a logical operation but an empirical operation. Hägerström’s synthetic conception of a judgment implies that his theory of judgments predicates that judgments observe the objects from an external point of view, implying a correspondence theory of truth, because the synthetic conception of a judgment forces him to decide the reality, truth value of a judgment by a comparison between it and an objective standard. Hägerström rejects the opposite understanding of the judgment’s relationship to the perceived object, as this, the internal view, entails that the subjective standpoint itself constitutes the sole criterion determining the reality of a judgment.134 Retrospectively, the idealistic view predicates that the perceiving subject only determines that the subject perceives, and what one appears to have a perception of, thereby failing to decide whether or not perceptions have any objective references and correspond to external objects.The subjective standpoint thus implies that the subject itself is the starting point and the preconceived objective standard for philosophical analysis in general, and is so regardless of whether these analyses concern the truth value of judgments (epistemology) or the content of the world as such (ontology). In conclusion, the subjectivistic standpoint asserts this: If a judgment is in accord with the subjective frame of mind, then the judgment is objectively true and this must be the case, since the terms objective and subjective ultimately must mean the same thing according to idealism. Hägerström’s critique is that the conclusion of subjectivism in this respect constitutes a misconception of logic, confusing formal correctness (the subject’s standard of validity) for material content (the object’s standard of selfa ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 213 3. 3 the theory of judgments and othe r e p i stemolog ical pe r spect ive s 134 Ibid., p. 55.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=