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Single Idea 3377

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 3. Eliminativism ]

Full Idea

The two best know attempts to analyse away mental states are Armstrong's causal conception of such states (e.g. pain is a neural event caused by tissue damage), and Smart's 'topic-neutral translation'.

Gist of Idea

Elimination can either be by translation or by causal explanation

Source

Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p. 67)

Book Ref

Kim,Jaegwon: 'Philosophy of Mind' [Westview 1998], p.67


A Reaction

Armstrong's view certainly seems to be missing something, since his 'pain' could do the job without consciousness. I take Smart's approach to be the germ of the right answer.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [there is no such thing as mind, only the brain]:

Dicaearchus said soul does not exist, but is just a configuration of the body [Dicaearchus, by Fortenbaugh]
'Consciousness' is a nonentity, a mere echo of the disappearing 'soul' [James]
Quine expresses the instrumental version of eliminativism [Quine, by Rey]
If we are going to eliminate folk psychology, we must also eliminate folk logic [Putnam]
All mental facts are representation, which consists of informational functions [Dretske]
Elimination can either be by translation or by causal explanation [Kim]
It is arbitrary to say which moment of brain processing is conscious [Dennett]
Visual experience is composed of neural activity, which we find pleasing [Dennett]
Folk psychology may not be reducible, but that doesn't make it false [Kirk,R on Churchland,PM]
Eliminative materialism says folk psychology will be replaced, not reduced [Churchland,PM]
Maybe there is a minimum brain speed for supporting a mind [Dennett]
I don't deny consciousness; it just isn't what people think it is [Dennett]
All meaningful psychological statements can be translated into physics [Kirk,R]
Identity theory likes the identity of lightning and electrical discharges [Lockwood]
If you explain water as H2O, you have reduced water, but not eliminated it [Rey]
Human behaviour can show law-like regularity, which eliminativism can't explain [Rey]
Physicalism doesn't deny that the essence of an experience is more than its neural realiser [Flanagan]
It seems contradictory to be asked to believe that we can be eliminativist about beliefs [Heil]
Eliminativism is incoherent if it eliminates reason and truth as well as propositional attitudes [Lowe]