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.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400840847
Publisert
2013
Utgiver
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Antall sider
200
Forfatter