Single Idea 6532

[catalogued under 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction]

Full Idea

If types cannot be reduced to more physical levels, this is not an embarrassment, as long as our institutional categories, our physiological categories, and our physical categories are just alternative groupings of the same tokens.

Gist of Idea

Types cannot be reduced, but levels of reduction are varied groupings of the same tokens

Source

William Lycan (Consciousness [1987], 4.3)

Book Reference

Lycan,William G.: 'Consciousness' [MIT 1995], p.42


A Reaction

This is a self-evident truth about a car engine, so I don't see why it wouldn't apply equally to a brain. Lycan's identification of the type as the thing which cannot be reduced seems a promising explanation of much confusion among philosophers.