Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Jaegwon Kim and Terence Horgan

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4 ideas

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality
Causal power is a good way of distinguishing the real from the unreal [Kim]
     Full Idea: A plausible criterion for distinguishing what is real from what is not real is the possession of causal power.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §4 p.119)
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 6. Physicalism
'Physical facts determine all the facts' is the physicalists' slogan [Kim]
     Full Idea: Physicalists are fond of saying that physical facts determine all the facts.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p.232)
     A reaction: I totally agree with this slogan. As a view, it seems to me that it is reinforced by essentialism (see the ideas of Brian Ellis), which gives some indication of how facts are physically determined, and why there is no alternative.
Physicalism needs more than global supervenience on the physical [Horgan,T]
     Full Idea: Global supervenience seems too weak to capture the physical facts determining all the facts. …There could be two spatio-temporal regions alike in all physical respects, but different in some intrinsic non-physical respect.
     From: Terence Horgan (From Supervenience to Superdupervenience [1993], §5)
     A reaction: I.e. there might be two physically identical regions, but one contains angels and the other doesn't (so the extra fact isn't tracking the physical facts). Physicalism I take to be the simple denial of the angels. Supervenience is an explanandum.
Materialism requires that physics be causally complete [Horgan,T]
     Full Idea: Any broadly materialistic metaphysical position needs to claim that physics is causally complete.
     From: Terence Horgan (From Supervenience to Superdupervenience [1993], §6)
     A reaction: Since 'physics' is a human creation, I presume he means that physical reality is causally complete. The interaction problem that faced Descartes seems crucial - how could something utterly non-physical effect a physical change?