Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Solon, Ariston and John Searle

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6 ideas

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction

3473	Reduction can be of things, properties, ideas or causes [Searle]
	Full Idea: I find at least five different senses of "reduction" in the literature - ontological (genes/DNA), property ontological (heat/mean molecular energy), theoretical (gas laws/statistics), logical/definitional (average plumber), and causal (solids/molecules).
	From: John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 5.II)
	A reaction: A useful pointer towards some much needed clearer thought about reduction. It is necessary to cross reference this list against reductions which are either ontological or epistemological or linguistic.

5791	Reduction is either by elimination, or by explanation [Searle]
	Full Idea: One sense of 'reduction' is eliminative, in getting rid of a phenomenon by showing that it is really something else (as the earth's rotation eliminates 'sunsets'), but another sense does not get rid of it (as in the explanation of solidity by molecules).
	From: John Searle (The Mystery of Consciousness [1997], Ch.2)
	A reaction: These are bad analogies. You can't 'eliminate' a sunset - you just accept that the event is relative to a viewpoint. If we are discussing ontology, we will not admit the existence of sunsets, but we won't have an ontological category of 'solidity' either.

5799	Eliminative reduction needs a gap between appearance and reality, as in sunsets [Searle]
	Full Idea: Eliminative reductions require a distinction between reality and appearance; for example, the sun appears to set but the reality is that the earth rotates.
	From: John Searle (The Mystery of Consciousness [1997], Concl 2.10)
	A reaction: A bad analogy. You don't 'eliminate' sunsets. It is just 'Galilean' relativity - you thought it was your train moving, then you discover it was the other one. You don't eliminate hallucinations when you show that they don't correspond to reality.

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / b. Types of supervenience

3841	Users of 'supervenience' blur its causal and constitutive meanings [Searle]
	Full Idea: I am no fan of the concept of supervenience. Its uncritical use is a sign of philosophical confusion, because the concept oscillates between causal supervenience and constitutive supervenience.
	From: John Searle (Rationality in Action [2001], Ch.9 n5)
	A reaction: I don't see why you shouldn't assert the supervenience of one thing on another, while saying that you are not sure whether it is causal or constitutive. The confusion seems to me to be in understandings of the causal version.

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 5. Supervenience / c. Significance of supervenience

3532	Solidity in a piston is integral to its structure, not supervenient [Maslin on Searle]
	Full Idea: Searle's defence of causally efficacious supervenient mind won't work, because, unlike the mind, the solidity of a piston is not a distinct and separate phenomenon from its microstructure.
	From: comment on John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 5.V) by Keith T. Maslin - Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind 7.6
	A reaction: Searle struggles to find analogies for his position - and that, in my view, is highly significant in the philosophy of mind. If there is nothing else like your proposed theory, it is probably just human vainglory.

3533	Is supervenience just causality? [Searle, by Maslin]
	Full Idea: For Searle the supervenience relation is just causality.
	From: report of John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 5.V) by Keith T. Maslin - Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind 7.6
	A reaction: 'Supervenience' seems, in that case, to be an irrelevant word, which was only used when the mind-body connection was a bit loose and mysterious. Mind is identical to brain, or a property of the brain. I like 'process of the brain'.