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Single Idea 20971

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 2. Reduction of Mind ]

Full Idea

Weak reduction of mind requires only that mental causes be identified with physical causes. A strong reduction requires also that the laws by which such causes operate follow by composition from non-special laws.

Clarification

The 'non-special' laws are the laws of physics

Gist of Idea

Weak reduction of mind is to physical causes; strong reduction is also to physical laws

Source

David Papineau (Thinking about Consciousness [2002], App 3 n8)

Book Ref

Papineau,David: 'Thinking about Consciousness' [OUP 2004], p.243

A Reaction

I'm cautious about laws, but I still vote for strong reduction. No new principles are needed to make a mind from a brain.

The 22 ideas with the same theme [all mental events can be explained physically]:

5713 You needn't be made of laughing particles to laugh, so why not sensation from senseless seeds? [Lucretius]
7550 We could probably, in principle, infer minds from brains, and brains from minds [Russell]
9317 Searle argues that biology explains consciousness, but physics won't explain biology [Searle, by Kriegel/Williford]
3474 If mind is caused by brain, does this mean mind IS brain? [Searle]
3500 Can the homunculus fallacy be beaten by recursive decomposition? [Searle]
6986 Is the dependence of the psychological on the physical a priori or a posteriori? [Jackson]
3433 The core of the puzzle is the bridge laws between mind and brain [Kim]
4900 Prior to Kripke, the mind-brain identity theory usually claimed that the identity was contingent [Perry]
3989 I am a reductionist about mind because I am an a priori reductionist about everything [Lewis]
7657 Intelligent agents are composed of nested homunculi, of decreasing intelligence, ending in machines [Dennett]
7879 Mind-brain reduction is less explanatory, because phenomenal concepts lack causal roles [Papineau]
20971 Weak reduction of mind is to physical causes; strong reduction is also to physical laws [Papineau]
21834 Sensations may be identical to brain events, but complex mental events don't seem to be [Flanagan]
10826 'Valence' and 'gene' had to be reduced to show their compatibility with physicalism [Field,H]
6530 We reduce the mind through homuncular groups, described abstractly by purpose [Lycan]
6536 Teleological functionalism helps us to understand psycho-biological laws [Lycan]
7704 Reduction of intentionality involving nonexistent objects is impossible, as reduction must be to what is actual [Jacquette]
4597 Early identity theory talked of mind and brain 'processes', but now the focus is properties [Heil]
4903 Scans of brains doing similar tasks produce very similar patterns of activation [Carter,R]
4920 Thinking takes place on the upper side of the prefrontal cortex [Carter,R]
4688 We imagine small and large objects scaled to the same size, suggesting a fixed capacity for imagination [Lavers]
8685 Studying biology presumes the laws of chemistry, and it could never contradict them [Friend]