The emergence of mind in a Physical world

by Juan Diego Morales Otero

Overview

The emergence of mind in a physical world presents an ontologically and methodologically well founded physicalist proposal that does not lose sight of the special particularity and alleged irreducibility of some of the most obvious phenomena of our existence, such as the human mind. The author provides a compelling argument against the most widely accepted interpretation of physicalism, microphysicalism, highlighting its deep empirical and conceptual problems, as well as an insightful response to the reiterated critiques leveled by some reductionist philosophers, especially Jaegwon Kim, at the non-reductive physicalist explanation of the causal relevance of mental and higher level properties. Morales argues in favor of emergentism as a non-reductive physicalist proposal that explains the causal reality of higher-level properties as metaphysically bases. This novel interpretation will be of great interest to scholars working in the field of philosophy of mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789587833270
Publisher:	Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Autores Tomás Barrero Egberto Bermúdez Beatriz Castro Carvajal Luis Carlos Colón Llamas Iván González Puccetti David Jiménez Rocío Londoño Rubén Sierra Mejía Leonardo Tovar González Clara Helena Sánchez

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Causation: A Non-Reductive Approach The Nature of Causal Entities Causation and Laws of Nature Counterfactual Theory of Causation Causation and Locality Probability and Intervention Causal Context and the Possibility of Causation in the Special Sciences Summary Chapter 2. The Concept of the Physical and the Overcoming of the Supervenience Theory What Physicalism Is Physicalism as a Contingent Theory What Is It To Be Physical? Microphysical Supervenience as the Criterion for the Physical The Empirical Failure of Microphysicalism Consequences for Determining the Concept of the Physical Finding a Solution to our Problem Summary Chapter 3. Emergentism as Type Macrophysicalism The Idea of Ontological Emergence Emergentism as Type Macrophysicalism Reductive and Non-Reductive Microphysicalism Property Dualism and Contingent Connections Emergence and Metaphysical Dependence Two Types of Ontological Emergence Summary Chapter 4. Non-Reductive Physicalism and the Problem of Causation in the Special Sciences Supervenience and Multiple Realizability The Causal Exclusion Argument The Supervenience Argument The Principle of Physical Causal Closure The Exclusion Principle The Interventionist Account of Exclusion The Argument of Causal Individuation of Natural Kinds Higher Causal Powers as Identical to Lower Causal Powers The Subset Account of Realization Summary Chapter 5. Emergent, Downward, and Mental Causation The Idea of Emergent Causation The Principle of Physical Causal Closure of Emergentism Emergent and Lower Level Causal Powers Testing the Causal Relevance of Higher Level Properties Emergent Causation at the Quantum Level Mental Causation as Emergent Causation Summary Appendix: Functional Reduction of the Special Properties Conclusion References Index