Dualistic Physicalism: from Phenomenon Dualism to Substance Dualism

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Dualistic Physicalism: from Phenomenon Dualism to Substance Dualism Dualistic Physicalism: From Phenomenon Dualism to Substance Dualism Joseph Polanik, JD Table of Contents Preface.................................................................................................................7 §1 The Central Question......................................................................................9 §2 The Brain/Experience Relation....................................................................11 §2.1 The Elements of Dualism.......................................................................11 §2.2 Proceeding from Common Ground........................................................13 §2.2.1 Evaluating Dennett's Defense of Materialism.................................13 §2.2.1.1 The Contradiction in the Dennett Defense...............................14 §2.2.1.2 Other Problems .......................................................................15 §2.2.1.2.1 Referring to Non-Existents...............................................15 §2.2.1.2.2 Violation of Common Sense..............................................16 §2.2.1.2.3 Denial of Experience.........................................................16 §2.2.1.2.4 Anticipating Type-Z Materialism......................................18 §2.2.1.3 Standing Precisely Against Eliminative Materialism ..............20 §2.2.2 The Argument for Dualism from Experience..................................21 §2.2.3 What Sort of Dualism is This?.........................................................25 §2.2.3.1 Phenomenon Dualism is Not Predicate Dualism.....................26 §2.2.3.1.1 Note on Classifying Searlean Philosophy.........................27 §2.2.3.1.2 Phenomenon Dualism is Not Conceptual Dualism............27 §2.2.3.2 Phenomenon Dualism is Not Property Dualism.......................27 §2.2.3.4 Phenomenon Dualism or an Atypical Event Dualism?.............31 §2.2.3.4.1 Garret on Event Dualism...................................................31 §2.2.3.4.2 Robinson's Dualism of Neural and Qualitative Events.....31 §2.2.3.4.3 Robinson's Epiphenomenalism.........................................32 §2.2.3.4.4 Atypical Event Dualism.....................................................33 §2.2.3.6 Conclusion...............................................................................33 §3 Objections to the Argument For Dualism From Experience.........................35 §3.1 Is Physicalism a Sufficient Defense against Dualism?..........................35 §3.1.1 Is Weakly Reductive Physicalism a Defense?.................................36 §3.1.2.1 Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives................................37 §3.1.3.2 Dualism as a Matter of Counting.............................................40 §3.1.3.3 Dualistic Physicalism is not Self-Contradictory.......................40 §3.1.2 Constitutional Physicalism.............................................................41 §3.2 Ontological Irreducibility is Insufficient for Dualism............................42 §3.2.1 The Case for Searlean Dualism......................................................43 §3.2.1.1 The Evidence of Phenomenon Dualism....................................43 §3.2.1.2 The Leap from Phenomenon Dualism to Property Dualism.....44 §3.2.1.3 Searle is Not a Property Dualist..............................................45 §3.2.2 Evaluating Searle's Defenses.........................................................45 §3.2.2.1 The Denial of Mutual Exclusivity..............................................45 §3.2.2.2 Distinctness Arguments ..........................................................47 §3.2.2.3 The Real Objection is Interaction............................................48 §3.2.2.4 Contesting the Language of Discourse....................................49 §3.2.2.4.1 The Intuition of Distinctness.............................................50 §3.2.2.4.2 Equivocation or Self-Contradiction?.................................51 §3.2.2.4.3 An Alternate Way of Overcoming the Opposition.............52 §3.2.2.5 Conclusion...............................................................................54 §3.3 Brain/Experience Identity Is A Viable Theory........................................55 §3.3.1 Theory vs. Meta-Theory...................................................................55 §3.3.2 The Knowledge Argument...............................................................56 §3.3.2.1 Jackson's Knowledge Argument ..............................................56 §3.3.2.2 The Charge of Equivocation.....................................................57 §3.3.2.3 The Total Knowledge Response................................................58 §3.3.2.4 Further Clarification and Concessions.....................................59 §3.3.2.5 Promissory Deductivism...........................................................61 §3.3.2.6 A Muted Acquaintance with a Revised Representationalism..64 §3.3.2.7 The Transparency Argument...................................................65 §3.3.2.8 Updating Type-Type Identity Theory.......................................69 §3.3.2.9 Observations and a Plan for Moving Forward.........................70 §3.3.2.9.1 Setting [DFQ-2] to One Side.............................................71 §3.3.2.9.2 Embracing the Parody.......................................................72 §3.3.3 KA, The Next Generation................................................................74 §3.3.3.1 What Does Mary Already Know?.............................................75 §3.3.3.1.1 Subjective Physicalism......................................................76 §3.3.3.1.2 Perry and the Assumption of Identity...............................79 §3.3.3.1.2.1 The Source of the New Knowledge............................81 §3.3.3.1.2.2 In Search of an Informative Identity ........................85 §3.3.3.1.2.3 Argument for Physical/Experiential Non-Identity......87 §3.3.3.2 What Does Mary Learn Upon Her Release? ...........................90 §3.3.3.2.1 The Additional Abilities Hypothesis...................................90 §3.3.3.2.2 Instantiation in Experience................................................92 §3.3.3.2.2.1 Evaluating Horgan's Defensive Strategy...................97 §3.3.3.2.2.2 Evaluating Horgan's Identity Claim...........................97 §3.3.3.2.2.3 Crossing the Rubicon...............................................101 §3.3.3.3 Is the Nagel/Churchland Argument Repairable?...................103 §3.3.3.3.1 Premise 2: The Repairable Flaw.....................................103 §3.3.3.3.2 Premise 1: The Fatal Ambiguity......................................104 §3.3.3.3.3 Repairing the Nagel/Churchland Argument...................105 §3.3.3.3.3.1 Knowledge about Knowing by Acquaintance..........106 §3.3.3.3.3.2 Knowledge by Description of Physical Phenomena 107 §3.3.3.3.4 Further Considerations...................................................107 §3.3.3.3.4.1 How Would I Come to Know the Alleged Identity?..107 §3.3.3.3.4.2 Accounting for Belief in the Possibility of Identity...109 §3.3.3.3.4.3 Is There an Is of Appearance?..................................110 §3.3.3.4 Instructively Irrelevant Identity Claims.................................111 §3.3.3.4.1 David K Lewis..................................................................113 §3.3.3.4.2 Gilbert Harman...............................................................114 §3.3.3.4.3 Byrne and Hilbert............................................................116 §3.3.3.4.4 U. T. Place and The Identity Crisis of Identity Theory....119 §3.3.3.4.4.1 Is an Afterimage a Material Object? ......................121 §3.3.3.4.4.2 The Criterion of Success..........................................121 §3.3.3.4.5 A Comment on Competing Identifications......................123 §3.3.3.5 Is a Relevant Identity Theory Plausible?...............................123 §3.3.3.5.1 Is This a Theory of Sense Data?......................................125 §3.3.3.4.2 Is Representationalism Unmotivated?............................126 §3.3.3.4.3 Feigl, An Existential Identity Theorist............................127 §3.3.3.6 How to Justify a Relevant Identity Claim...............................128 §3.3.3.6.1 The Appeal to Leibniz.....................................................128 §3.3.3.6.1.1 The Argument from Phenomenal Properties............129 § 3.3.3.6.1.2 The Topic Neutrality Defense..................................130 § 3.3.3.6.1.3 The Color Realism Defense.....................................131 § 3.3.3.6.1.4 Is Greenness Phenomenal Greenness?...................132 § 3.3.3.6.1.5 The Privacy of Experience.......................................133 § 3.3.3.6.1.6 The Absence of Spatial Location.............................134 § 3.3.3.6.1.7 Evaluating the Defenses..........................................135 §3.3.3.6.2 Identity via Parallel Phenomenology...............................135 §3.3.3.6.2.1 A Non-Identity Alternative.......................................137 §3.3.3.6.2.2 Phenomenally Instantiated Information?.................138 §3.3.3.6.3 The Phenomenal Concepts Strategy...............................140 §3.3.3.6.3.1 Reply to Block...........................................................142 §3.3.3.6.3.2 Reply to Loar............................................................143 §3.3.3.6.3.3 Reply to Balog..........................................................147 §3.3.3.6.4 Claiming an A Posteriori Identity....................................149 §3.3.3.6.4.1 Scientific Essentialism and KA:TNG........................153
Recommended publications
  • Matter and Consciousness
    Matter and Consciousness Historical Parallels As the identity theorist can point to historical cases of successful Paul Churchland, 1984 intertheoretic reduction, so the eliminative materialist can point to historical cases of the outright elimination of the ontology of an older theory in favor of the ontology of a new and superior theory. For most of Chapter 2: The Ontological Problem (the Mind-Body Problem) the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, learned people believed that heat was a subtle fluid held in bodies, much in the way water is held in a sponge. A fair body of moderately successful theory described the way 5. Eliminative Materialism this fluid substance—called “caloric”—flowed within a body, or from one body to another, and how it produced thermal expansion, melting, The identity theory was called into doubt not because the prospects for a boiling, and so forth. But by the end of the last century it had become materialist account of our mental capacities were thought to be poor, but abundantly clear that heat was not a substance at all, but just the energy because it seemed unlikely that the arrival of an adequate materialist of motion of the trillions of jostling molecules that makeup the heated theory would bring with it the nice one-to-one match-ups, between the body itself. The new theory—the “corpuscular/kinetic theory of matter concepts of folk psychology and the concepts of theoretical and heat”—was much more successful than the old in explaining and neuroscience, that intertheoretic reduction requires. The reason for that predicting the thermal behavior of bodies.
    [Show full text]
  • Maintaining Meaningful Expressions of Romantic Love in a Material World
    Reconciling Eros and Neuroscience: Maintaining Meaningful Expressions of Romantic Love in a Material World by ANDREW J. PELLITIERI* Boston University Abstract Many people currently working in the sciences of the mind believe terms such as “love” will soon be rendered philosophically obsolete. This belief results from a common assumption that such terms are irreconcilable with the naturalistic worldview that most modern scientists might require. Some philosophers reject the meaning of the terms, claiming that as science progresses words like ‘love’ and ‘happiness’ will be replaced completely by language that is more descriptive of the material phenomena taking place. This paper attempts to defend these meaningful concepts in philosophy of mind without appealing to concepts a materialist could not accept. Introduction hilosophy engages the meaning of the word “love” in a myriad of complex discourses ranging from ancient musings on happiness, Pto modern work in the philosophy of mind. The eliminative and reductive forms of materialism threaten to reduce the importance of our everyday language and devalue the meaning we attach to words like “love,” in the name of scientific progress. Faced with this threat, some philosophers, such as Owen Flanagan, have attempted to defend meaningful words and concepts important to the contemporary philosopher, while simultaneously promoting widespread acceptance of materialism. While I believe that the available work is useful, I think * [email protected]. Received 1/2011, revised December 2011. © the author. Arché Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy, Volume V, Issue 1: Winter 2012. pp. 60-82 RECONCILING EROS AND NEUROSCIENCE 61 more needs to be said about the functional role of words like “love” in the script of progressing neuroscience, and further the important implications this yields for our current mode of practical reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Unnoticed Implications of Churchland's Pragmatic Pluralism
    Contemporary Pragmatism Editions Rodopi Vol. 8, No. 1 (June 2011), 173–189 © 2011 Beyond Eliminative Materialism: Some Unnoticed Implications of Churchland’s Pragmatic Pluralism Teed Rockwell Paul Churchland’s epistemology contains a tension between two positions, which I will call pragmatic pluralism and eliminative materialism. Pragmatic pluralism became predominant as his episte- mology became more neurocomputationally inspired, which saved him from the skepticism implicit in certain passages of the theory of reduction he outlined in Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind. However, once he replaces eliminativism with a neurologically inspired pragmatic pluralism, Churchland (1) cannot claim that folk psychology might be a false theory, in any significant sense; (2) cannot claim that the concepts of Folk psychology might be empty of extension and lack reference; (3) cannot sustain Churchland’s critic- ism of Dennett’s “intentional stance”; (4) cannot claim to be a form of scientific realism, in the sense of believing that what science describes is somehow realer that what other conceptual systems describe. One of the worst aspects of specialization in Philosophy and the Sciences is that it often inhibits people from asking the questions that could dissolve long standing controversies. This paper will deal with one of these controversies: Churchland’s proposal that folk psychology is a theory that might be false. Even though one of Churchland’s greatest contributions to philosophy of mind was demonstrating that the issues in philosophy of mind were a subspecies of scientific reduction, still philosophers of psychology have usually defended or critiqued folk psychology without attempting to carefully analyze Churchland’s theory of reduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2016—Test 3 Answers 1. According to Descartes
    Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2016—Test 3 Answers 1. According to Descartes, … a. what I really am is a body, but I also possess a mind. b. minds and bodies can’t causally interact with one another, but God fools us into believing they do. c. cats and dogs have immortal souls, just like you and I. d. conscious states always have physical causes, but never have physical effects. E. WHAT I REALLY AM IS A MIND, BUT I ALSO POSSESS A BODY. 2. Which of the following would Descartes agree with? A. WE CAN CONCEIVE OF EXISTING WITHOUT A BODY. b. We can conceive of existing without a mind. c. We can conceive of existing without either a mind or a body. d. We can’t conceive of mental substance. e. We can’t conceive of material substance. 3. Substance dualism is the view that … a. there are two kinds of minds. B. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF “ BASIC STUFF” IN THE WORLD. c. there are two kinds of physical particles. d. there are two kinds of people in the world—those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those that don’t. e. material substance comes in two forms, matter and energy. 4. We call a property “accidental” (as opposed to “essential”) when ... a. it is the result of an car crash. b. it follows from a thing’s very nature. c. it is a property a thing can’t lose (without ceasing to exist). D. IT IS A PROPERTY A THING CAN LOSE (WITHOUT CEASING TO EXIST).
    [Show full text]
  • Tools of Pragmatism
    Coping with the World: Tools of Pragmatism Mind, Brain and the Intentional Vocabulary Anders Kristian Krabberød Hovedoppgave Filosofisk Institutt UNIVERSITETET I OSLO Høsten 2004 Contents 1. Introduction.................................................................................................. 2 2. Different Ways of Describing the Same Thing ........................................... 7 3. Rorty and Vocabularies ............................................................................. 11 The Vocabulary-Vocabulary ...............................................................................................13 Reduction and Ontology......................................................................................................17 4. The Intentional Vocabulary and Folk Psychology: the Churchlands and Eliminative Materialism ................................................................................ 21 Eliminative Materialism......................................................................................................22 Dire Consequences..............................................................................................................24 Objecting against Eliminative Materialism..........................................................................25 1. The first objection: Eliminative materialism is a non-starter........................................27 2. The second objection: What could possibly falsify Folk Psychology?...........................29 3. The third objection: Folk Psychology is used
    [Show full text]
  • Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology's
    Augsburg Honors Review Volume 12 Article 4 2019 Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire Allison Mangan Augsburg University Follow this and additional works at: https://idun.augsburg.edu/honors_review Part of the Epistemology Commons Recommended Citation Mangan, Allison (2019) "Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire," Augsburg Honors Review: Vol. 12 , Article 4. Available at: https://idun.augsburg.edu/honors_review/vol12/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate at Idun. It has been accepted for inclusion in Augsburg Honors Review by an authorized editor of Idun. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Allison Mangan Qualia, the Heart of the Mind-Body Problem and Epistemology’s Quagmire Alio Maga, Augbug Univesty ualia are layered and complex, the basic philosophic understanding a labyrinth of a concept, of qualia today. We will see how Q rife with debate as to their consciousness is necessary for qualia, existence, state, and what they mean and why this makes defning qualia for our understanding of knowledge, a challenge. Next, we will go over the relationship with the world, and explanatory gap of qualia. From there, ourselves. Toughtful exploration into we will see how qualia relate to the mind- the complexities of what qualia are body problem, and the early exploration and how they relate to the mind-body of this problem through Descartes, problem will be wrestled with though Locke, and Berkeley. Additionally, we research applied within this paper. will go over the main schools of thought Qualia can be found in philosophical that surround the mind-body problem: debates surrounding epistemology materialism, idealism, and dualism.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul Churchland
    fair body of moderately successful theory described the way this fluid Paul Churchland substance--called "caloric"-- flowed within a body, or from one body to another, and how it produced thermal expansion, melting, boiling, and Eliminative Materialism (1984)* so forth. But by the end of the last century it had become abundantly clear that heat was not a substance at all, but just the energy of motion of Eliminative materialism (or eliminativism) is the radical claim that our ordinary, the trillions of jostling molecules that make up the heated body itself. Te common-sense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of new theory--the "corpuscular/kinetic theory of matter and hear'--was the mental states posited by common-sense do not actually exist. Descartes fa- much more successful than the old in explaining and predicting the mously challenged much of what we take for granted, but he insisted that, for the thermal behavior of bodies. And since we were unable to identify caloric most part, we can be confident about the content of our own minds. Eliminative fluid with kinetic energy (according to the old theory, caloric is a material materialists go further than Descartes on this point, since they challenge of the exis- substance; according to the new theory, kinetic energy is a form of mo- tence of various mental states that Descartes took for granted. tion), it was finally agreed that there is no such thing as caloric. Caloric —William Ramsey1 was simply eliminated from our accepted ontology. As the eliminative materialists see it…our common-sense psycholo- A second example.
    [Show full text]
  • Mind/Body Overview
    Mind/Body Overview 1. Physics and Folk Psychology a. Physics: hard-nosed, particles, observables, repeatable b. Folk Psychology: Beliefs, hopes, desires, sensations, subjective, consciousness 2. Issues a. Ontological 1. What are mental states and processes? 2. What are physical states and processes? 3. How are the mental and physical related? 4. Example: Replace NS with silicon starting at retina. Still conscious? b. Semantical 1. Where do propositional attitudes get their meanings? Ex: Belief; Belief that p. 2. Where do qualia get their meanings? Ex: pain, red, warmth 3. Where do other terms get their meanings? Ex: horse, electron c. Epistemological 1. How do we know anything? 2. How do we know if something has a mind? (Problem of other minds) 3. How do I know my own mental states? (Problem of self-consciousness) d. Methodological 1. What are appropriate methods for studying psychology? 2. What determines their propriety? 3. Ontologies a. Substance Dualism 1. Descartes: Mind is a distinct substance from matter 2. Matter: extended in space; has length, width, breadth, and position. 1 3. Mind: essence is thinking; has no extension or position in space. 4. Reasons: how could matter ever use language or reason mathematically? 5. Problem: How can mind interact with matter, and not violate conservation laws? 6. Problem: Electrons have no extension or determinate postion in space. Yet physical. 7. Eccles and Popper: mind affects probabilities of exocytosis at all synapses b. Popular Dualism 1. Mind is a “ghost in a machine”; machine=body; mind=spiritual substance 2. Mind is inside body (probably brain) 3. Mind interacts with brain by some form of energy exchange 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Intro to Philosophy . Fall 2015 Instructor
    INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY . FALL 2015 INSTRUCTOR: COLENA SESANKER MEETING TIMES: MWF 1-1:50 D109 CONTACT INFO: [email protected] TEXT: REASON AND RESPONSIBILTY 15th edition Feinberg& Shafer-Landau, ISBN# 978-1133608479 + VARIOUS PROVIDED TEXTS COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed as an introduction to various problems and methods of western analytic philosophy. We will apply these methods of evaluation to the following topics: The problem of evil, the rationality of belief in God, the problem of free will, the relationship between the mind and the brain, the possibility of perception of and genuine knowledge of the External World, causation and questions of selfhood and personal identity. Many of these questions will be familiar to you and the conclusions reached in this class will, most likely, further evolve after the end of the term. OBJECTIVES: To further refine of your own world view. To evaluate standard formulations of philosophical problems and some answers to these puzzles posed by historical thinkers. Most importantly, to master a method of approaching such problems which, ultimately, will make you a more precise and critical thinker. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 30% 3 position papers (3 x 10%), 7% participation including sporadic quizzes, written responses, group work, journal entries etc. (1%per topic plus 1) 55% Topic Quizzes 8% Final ‘exam’ MISSED ASSIGNMENTS: If there are special circumstances which make it necessary for a student to make up an assignment at a time other than the date scheduled, please be sure to contact me by email or in person before the missed assignment so that special arrangements can be made.
    [Show full text]
  • Eliminative Materialism
    © Michael Lacewing Eliminative materialism Eliminative materialism (also known as eliminativism) argues that future scientific developments will show that the way we think and talk about the mind is fundamentally flawed. Our mental concepts are so mistaken, in fact, that we should abandon all talk of the mental, and stick to talking about brain processes instead. This claim is not a form of reductionism; it is a form of elimination. Reduction says that there are mental properties, but they are, in fact, physical, or behavioural, or functional properties. Eliminativism says that there are no mental properties – nothing exists that corresponds to mental terms like ‘belief’, ‘desire’ and so on. CHURCHLAND, ‘ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM AND THE PROPOSITIONAL ATTITUDES’, §§1, 2 Folk psychology Churchland’s argument for eliminativism goes like this. First, we are able to understand, explain and sometimes predict each other’s behaviour very successfully. We do this by referring to each other’s beliefs, desires, emotions, intentions and so on. (It is these mental states, rather than phenomenal properties, that Churchland is interested in.) But explanations, claims Churchland, require laws. What is going on is that we tacitly know and use a rich network of common-sense – perhaps rather loose – laws. For example, if someone is thirsty, they will – under normal conditions – look for something to drink. If someone believes it is raining outside, and doesn’t want to get wet, they will – under normal conditions – pick up an umbrella or other covering to keep them dry. And so on. Call this body of knowledge ‘folk psychology’. We understand what beliefs, desires, etc., are in terms of their place in this network of laws – in terms of how they relate to other mental states and behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • An Arc of Thought
    Brandom An Arc of Thought: From Rorty’s Eliminative Materialism to his Pragmatism Richard Rorty used to say that he was a perfect example of Isaiah Berlin’s hedgehog: he had really only ever had one idea. Considering the vast range and diversity of the topics Rorty addressed—encompassing epistemology, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, the whole history of philosophy and of the culture more generally, literature, politics, and more—such a claim might seem literally unbelievable. But I think there is a core of truth to it. For there is an almost ballistic trajectory described by his thought from very early on—well before Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature—that brought him to the mature form of his pragmatism. The later work can be seen as the result of an extended meditation on the lessons that could be drawn from the earlier work. Rorty relentlessly followed out the logic of his argument, no matter where it led, continuing to draw consequences long after the switch on most thinkers’ internal compasses would have flipped from the modus ponens to the modus tollens position. Indeed, one trait he shared with his Princeton colleague David Lewis is the frequency with which they, more than almost any other philosophers of their generation, found it necessary to remind their audiences that “an incredulous stare is not an argument,” as Lewis memorably put it. Of course, the sort of intense, resolute, ruthless singlemindedness that regularly provokes that kind of stare has been the source of some of our greatest philosophical high adventures—one need only think of Spinoza, Hobbes, and Berkeley, or of Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche.
    [Show full text]
  • Precis of Psychoneural Reduction: the New Wa Ve
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 61 (2001) 249-255 PRECIS OF PSYCHONEURAL REDUCTION: THE NEW WA VE John BICKLE University of Cincinnati Although her plumb for eliminative materialism generated the most sound and fury, three other projects in Patricia Churchland's (1986) Neurophilosophy were of greater philosophical significance: Contributing to a new theory of cross-levels intertheoretic reduc- tion for science in general and reformulating the traditional mind-body problem using these resources; Replying to dualists' arguments based on features of conscious ex- perience (qualia, subjectivity); Replying to multiple realizability arguments for both functionalism and the methodological autonomy of cognitive psychology from the neurosciences. Churchland did not invent any of these projects, but her book gave them a unified focus grounded on a post-logical empiricist philosophy of science and a wealth of empirical neuroscientific detail. Unfortunately, these three projects and the progress Church land and other reductionists made got lost in the bombast over eliminativism. By the late-1990s interest in eliminativism had waned, but recent de- velopments in philosophy of mind had also eclipsed these specific pro- jects. Some flaws in the theory of intertheoretic reduction remained unad- dressed. (Clifford Hooker 1981 had first noticed these in the very paper that remained the benchmark for the theory.) New "dualistic" arguments based on more sophisticated metaphysics emerged (Chalmers 1996), along with "New Mysterian" worries about humans' capabilites of solv- ing the consciousness-brain problem (McGinn, 1989). Nonreductive physicalism replaced functionalism, and supervenience replaced realiza- tion as the preferred alternative to reduction. Clearly, if "neurophiloso- phy" was to remain viable, these three projects and their unity within a philosophy of science and the empirical neurosciences required reformu- 250 lation and a new focus.
    [Show full text]