The Causal Argument For Physicalism
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The Causal Argument For Physicalism
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Author : David Yates
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2005
The Causal Argument For Physicalism written by David Yates and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2005 with Materialism categories.
Physicalism can be thought of as the view that the mental is "nothing over and above" the physical. I defend a formulation of this view based on supervenience. Physicalism may be supported in two ways: either by providing an explanatory account of the mind in physical terms, or by philosophical argument. Since we have only a rudimentary scientific understanding of the mind, physicalism needs argument. The most promising such argument is the causal argument, which may be summarised thus: (i) mental properties have physical effects; (ii) physics is causally complete (all physical effects have physical causes); (iii) effects are not generally overdetermined; so (iv) mental properties are physical. Of these premises, (i) relies on common-sense, (ii) relies on empirical support, and (iii) is a priori. I consider the merits of this argument by articulating two kinds of mental property emergence, 'weak' and 'strong', both of which are incompatible with physicalism. I show that the premises of the causal argument are compatible with weak emergence, and that the argument is therefore not deductively valid. The causal argument establishes that one of physicalism or weak emergence is true. However, weak emergence is problematic in ways that physicalism is not. If these problems are serious, then physicalism is to be preferred on other grounds, such as theoretical elegance and simplicity. However, I proceed to show that the soundness of the argument is questionable, as premise (ii) is unsupported by the available evidence. Strong emergence is inconsistent with (ii), so evidence for (ii) must (on reasonable assumption) be evidence against strong emergence. But all currently available evidence is consistent with strong emergence, and so this evidence does not support (ii).
The Causal Argument For Physicalism
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Author : David Yates (Senior research fellow)
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2005
The Causal Argument For Physicalism written by David Yates (Senior research fellow) and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2005 with categories.
Physicalism And Mental Causation
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Author : Sven Walter
language : en
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Release Date : 2015-11-04
Physicalism And Mental Causation written by Sven Walter and has been published by Andrews UK Limited this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-11-04 with Philosophy categories.
Physicalism—the thesis that everything there is in the world, including our minds, is constituted by basic physical entities—has dominated the philosophy of mind during the last few decades. But although the conceptual foundations of the physicalist agenda—including a proper explication of notions such as ‘causation', ‘determination', ‘realization’ or even ‘physicalism’ itself—must be settled before more specific problems (e.g. the problems of mental causation and human agency) can be satisfactorily addressed, a comprehensive philosophical reflection on the relationships between the various key concepts of the debate on physicalism is yet missing. This book presents a range of essays on the conceptual foundations of physicalism, mental causation and human agency, written by established and leading authors in the field.
Physicalism
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Author : Daniel Stoljar
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2010-04-05
Physicalism written by Daniel Stoljar and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-04-05 with Philosophy categories.
Physicalism, the thesis that everything is physical, is one of the most controversial problems in philosophy. Its adherents argue that there is no more important doctrine in philosophy, whilst its opponents claim that its role is greatly exaggerated. In this superb introduction to the problem Daniel Stoljar focuses on three fundamental questions: the interpretation, truth and philosophical significance of physicalism. In answering these questions he covers the following key topics: a brief history of physicalism and its definitions what a physical property is and how physicalism meets challenges from empirical sciences ‘Hempel’s dilemma’ and the relationship between physicalism and physics physicalism and key debates in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, such as supervenience, identity and conceivability physicalism and causality. Additional features include chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary of technical terms, making Physicalism ideal for those coming to the problem for the first time.
A Critique Of The Scientific Case For Physicalism
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Author : Daniel Norton
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2019
A Critique Of The Scientific Case For Physicalism written by Daniel Norton and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019 with categories.
This dissertation critiques the scientific case for physicalism, understood here to be the view that the mental, or consciousness, is physical or physically realized. The two most developed accounts I have found regarding how science supports physicalism are those offered by David Papineau and Andrew Melnyk. They each argue for physicalism in somewhat different ways. Papineau relies heavily on the "causal argument" and in particular is concerned to defend one of the premises of that argument, the "completeness of physics" or "causal closure of the physical" principle. Melnyk also deploys the causal argument but offers three other lines of argument as well. In this dissertation, after some context-setting in Chapter 1, I consider each of their arguments in turn-Papineau's in Chapter 2 and Melnyk's in Chapter 3-and argue that their arguments do not succeed in delivering physicalism. In Chapter 4, I consider error theories that might help to explain why physicalism has become a dominant view despite being (as I take it to be) unsupported (or at best ill-supported) by science. In Chapter 5, I briefly consider a couple of scientific arguments for physicalism, involving vitalism and evolution, that are not made in the works by Papineau and Melnyk that I will be considering but that I think are worth addressing.
Physicalism Or Something Near Enough
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Author : Jaegwon Kim
language : en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date : 2007-12-03
Physicalism Or Something Near Enough written by Jaegwon Kim and has been published by Princeton University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-12-03 with Philosophy categories.
Contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind have largely been shaped by physicalism, the doctrine that all phenomena are ultimately physical. Here, Jaegwon Kim presents the most comprehensive and systematic presentation yet of his influential ideas on the mind-body problem. He seeks to determine, after half a century of debate: What kind of (or "how much") physicalism can we lay claim to? He begins by laying out mental causation and consciousness as the two principal challenges to contemporary physicalism. How can minds exercise their causal powers in a physical world? Is a physicalist account of consciousness possible? The book's starting point is the "supervenience" argument (sometimes called the "exclusion" argument), which Kim reformulates in an extended defense. This argument shows that the contemporary physicalist faces a stark choice between reductionism (the idea that mental phenomena are physically reducible) and epiphenomenalism (the view that mental phenomena are causally impotent). Along the way, Kim presents a novel argument showing that Cartesian substance dualism offers no help with mental causation. Mind-body reduction, therefore, is required to save mental causation. But are minds physically reducible? Kim argues that all but one type of mental phenomena are reducible, including intentional mental phenomena, such as beliefs and desires. The apparent exceptions are the intrinsic, felt qualities of conscious experiences ("qualia"). Kim argues, however, that certain relational properties of qualia, in particular their similarities and differences, are behaviorally manifest and hence in principle reducible, and that it is these relational properties of qualia that are central to their cognitive roles. The causal efficacy of qualia, therefore, is not entirely lost. According to Kim, then, while physicalism is not the whole truth, it is the truth near enough.
Physicalism And The Causal Exclusion Argument
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Author : Jonas Fogedgaard Christensen
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2010
Physicalism And The Causal Exclusion Argument written by Jonas Fogedgaard Christensen and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010 with categories.
Mental Causation And Ontology
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Author : S. C. Gibb
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Release Date : 2013-03-21
Mental Causation And Ontology written by S. C. Gibb and has been published by Oxford University Press, USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-03-21 with Philosophy categories.
This book demonstrates the importance of ontology for a central debate in philosophy of mind. Mental causation seems an obvious aspect of the world. But it is hard to understand how it can happen unless we get clear about what the entities involved in the process are. An international team of contributors presents new work on this problem.
Qualia And Mental Causation In A Physical World
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Author : Terry Horgan
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2015-03-05
Qualia And Mental Causation In A Physical World written by Terry Horgan and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-03-05 with Philosophy categories.
A collection of new essays that develop themes from the work of the philosopher Jaegwon Kim.
Minds Causes And Mechanisms
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Author : Josep E. Corbí
language : en
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Release Date : 2000-02-21
Minds Causes And Mechanisms written by Josep E. Corbí and has been published by Wiley-Blackwell this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2000-02-21 with Philosophy categories.
Minds, Causes, and Mechanisms questions the internal consistency of causal physicalism, and vindicates a novel approach to mental causation.