Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anaxarchus, David Papineau and Bob Hale/ Aviv Hoffmann

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4 ideas

17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 2. Anomalous Monism
If causes are basic particulars, this doesn't make conscious and physical properties identical [Papineau]
     Full Idea: If causes are basic particulars, then the causal argument won't carry you to the identity of conscious and physical properties, since this only requires them to be instantiated in the same particular, not that the properties are themselves identical.
     From: David Papineau (Thinking about Consciousness [2002], 1.3)
     A reaction: [See Idea 7857; Papineau is rejecting the Davidson view] This explains how Davidson reaches a token-token identity view. Can two events occur in the same particular at the same moment? Depends what you mean by a 'particular'.
17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 5. Supervenience of mind
Epiphenomenalism is supervenience without physicalism [Papineau]
     Full Idea: Supervenience is a necessary condition for physicalism, but it is not sufficient. Epiphenomenalism rules out mental variation without physical variation, but says mental properties are quite distinct from physical properties.
     From: David Papineau (Philosophical Naturalism [1993], 1.2)
     A reaction: I take full epiphenomenalism about mind to be incoherent, and not worth even mentioning (see Idea 7379). Papineau seems to be thinking of so-called property dualism (which may also be incoherent!).
Supervenience requires all mental events to have physical effects [Papineau]
     Full Idea: The argument for supervenience rests on the principle that any mental difference must be capable of showing itself in differential physical consequences.
     From: David Papineau (Philosophical Naturalism [1993], 1.8)
     A reaction: With our current knowledge of the brain, to assume anything less than this sort of correlation would be crazy.
Supervenience can be replaced by identifying mind with higher-order or disjunctional properties [Papineau]
     Full Idea: I would argue that any benefits offered by the notion of supervenience are more easily gained simply by identifying mental properties directly with higher-order properties or disjunctions of physical properties.
     From: David Papineau (Thinking about Consciousness [2002], 1.8)
     A reaction: Those who talk of supervenience seem to me to have retreated into a mystery that is not far from substance dualism. We want the explanation of a supervenience. If you accompany me everywhere, I think you are stalking me, or are tied to my ankle.