Overview
- Addresses a tightly knit cluster of significant questions in the metaphysics of mind
- Critiques accounts of realization by Melynk, Pereboom, and Shoemaker
- Describes a sense in which mental properties qualify as physical even if not identical with properties of the natural sciences
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy (BRIEFSPHILOSOPH)
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Table of contents (4 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book addresses a tightly knit cluster of questions in the philosophy of mind. There is the question: Are mental properties identical with physical properties? An affirmative answer would seem to secure the truth of physicalism regarding the mind, i.e., the belief that all mental phenomena obtain solely in virtue of physical phenomena. If the answer is negative, then the question arises: Can this solely in virtue of relation be understood as some kind of dependence short of identity? And answering this requires answering two further questions. Exactly what sort of dependence on the physical does physicalism require, and what is needed for a property or phenomenon to qualify as physical?
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It is argued that multiple realizability still provides irresistible proof (especially with the possibility of immaterial realizers) that mental properties are not identical with any properties of physics, chemistry, or biology. After refuting various attempts to formulate nonreductive physicalism with the notion of realization, a new definition of physicalism is offered. This definition shows how it could be that the mental depends solely on the physical even if mental properties are not identical with those of the natural sciences. Yet, it is also argued that the sort of psychophysical dependence described is robust enough that if it were to obtain, then in a plausible and robust sense of ‘physical’, mental properties would still qualify as physical properties.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Physicalism and the Mind
Authors: Robert Francescotti
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9451-0
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-9450-3Published: 01 October 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-9451-0Published: 18 September 2014
Series ISSN: 2211-4548
Series E-ISSN: 2211-4556
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 90
Topics: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics