Standpoints: Time and Subjectivity

By Martin Lipman

There is an assumption that reality has the structure of a simple stack of facts, and that a total view of the facts is either a view from somewhere special--a standpoint from which things are viewed as they truly are--or a view from nowhere. This book rejects this assumption. Many phenomena can only be properly described from particular standpoints within the world, but none of these are ultimately special.

Standpoints develops a philosophical framework that allows us to accept perspectival facts without needing to privilege one perspective. In particular, it allows us to accept the reality of temporal and subjective facts without needing to privilege a time, such as the present, or a subject, such as oneself. The framework develops a new logic for the adoption of standpoints according to which the world has a fragmented structure and consists of multiple stacks of perspectival facts. Because no time or subject is metaphysically privileged, we are free to adopt any temporal or subjective standpoint in our theoretical thinking about the world. In fact, we must engage in this type of immersive thinking if we want to properly understand phenomena such as the passage of time, special relativity, consciousness, the self, and subjective properties, such as colors.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198921284
• ISBN13: 9780198921288
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 288 Pages