Brightman and Popper on the Emergence of the Person: Implications for the Abortion Issue

Joe Barnhart, University of North Texas

Introduction: Realism and Idealism

While both Edgar S. Brightman and Karl R. Popper may be classified broadly as proponents of process philosophy, they differ with one another in two important respects. Popper is a metaphysical realist, Brightman an idealist of the personalist variety. Popper holds that both idealism and realism are irrefutable. Since no describable event, and no conceivable experience, can be taken as effective refutation of either, Popper refers to his view as metaphysical, rather than scientific, realism. He believes his view has an advantage in that it is arguable even though not scientifically testable (Popper, Objective 38–40). Those who have studied Brightman's magnum opus Person and Reality know that he argues at length for a version of pluralistic idealism. Later, I will show that despite their disagreement on realism and idealism, these two philosophers have explicated positions that have a great deal in common.