Questions tagged [physicalism]
93 questions
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What is the difference between naturalism and materialism?
What is the difference between naturalism and materialism, if any?
I see definitions of naturalism that say, in effect, it is the belief that there is no supernatural. But what is the supernatural other than that which is not natural, which seems…
David Lewis
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Is there a causal influence of the mental on the physical?
Regardless of whether the mental is ultimately physical or not... doesn't the impact of human knowledge (science, mathematics, etc) on the world (ie: technology, agriculture, basically everything), give us proof that the mental affects the…
Ameet Sharma
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If zombies are possible would that imply that physicalism is false?
The SEP article on Zombies writes:
Zombies in philosophy are imaginary creatures used to illuminate
problems about consciousness and its relation to the physical world.
Unlike those in films or witchraft, they are exactly like us in all
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stoicfury
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Why does Chalmers' argument about "the hard problem" not entail idealism?
Chalmers famously argues in Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness:
At the end of the day, the same criticism applies to any purely physical account of consciousness. For any physical process we specify there will be an unanswered question: Why…
David Lewis
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Is physicalism ultimately essentialist?
Classical Greek atomism arose basically as a response to the Eleatic criticism of the concept of change. The Eleatic argument was basically that if X=Y, then all properties of X must also be properties of Y, but if X is a thing at one time and Y is…
David Gudeman
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Physicalism + book recommendations
I'm 17 years old and I'm starting out in philosophy on my own. To get started I would like to get to know myself more and the way I think since according to what I have researched, I could define myself as someone who is a physicalist and at the…
WiseMode
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What is the difference between Naturalism and Physicalism?
I am trying to figure the difference between Naturalism and Physicalism. As far as I could tell, they were the same thing, except that physicalism (physicalist vs dualist) was the term used when discussing philosophy of mind and naturalism was the…
Alexander S King
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Do non physical causes exist?
When we decide to move an arm, some argue that it is an example of a mental event causing a physical effect. But doesn’t recent science show that free will may be illusory and from a time perspective, the notion of “choosing” to move the arm happens…
thinkingman
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Physicalism versus dualism: is it reasonable to assign a burden of proof to one party?
I've been watching some video lectures online, and in some of the videos, the professor argues essentially as follows:
Both the dualist and the physicalist believe in the body. This is
status quo. The dualist then expresses a belief in the…
Imean
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Why is Multiple Realizability considered to have refuted the type-identity theory of the mind?
Def 1: Type-identity theory: brain states and mental states are the same thing. The mental state "I love Metallica" is nothing more than the neural configuration of a Metallica fan.
Def 2: Multiple Realizability: that the same mental state can be…
Alexander S King
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Is there a boundary on 'physical'?
I have asserted many times here that physicalism as degraded into an undecidable question, and I would like to see how strong my understanding is.
It seems to me that whenever we approach the boundary of what should be considered physical, it…
user9166
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On the connection between science and reality
My question is basically targetting various sciences that we use to understnad the real world and how we form laws in them.
For example, in physics, we first see sometthing in the real world. Let it be Newton seeing the apple fall down or anything…
Aveer Singh
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If consciousness was an illusion, would it be less real?
Even though qualia are generally considered to be unexplainable, there are philosophers like Daniel Dennett attempting to get to the core of consciousness with scientific methods. In his view, consciousness is an "illusion", on the physical base,…
Probably
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What is the difference between type identity physicalism and eliminativism?
Type identity physicalism says mental states are identical with brain states. Eliminativism on the other hand states that mental states don't exist at all.
Isn't this just a word game? Does it really matter whether we say "Super-Man is identical to…
Alexander S King
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Are there thought experiments about physicalism?
Other than Mary's Room and maybe Searle's Chinese Room are there any other interesting thought experiments against the ideas of physicalism, and the idea our minds are identical to our brains?
user128932
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