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Single Idea 7851

[from 'Thinking about Consciousness' by David Papineau, in 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 1. Thought ]

Full Idea

Conscious states clearly affect our bodily movements. But surely anything that so produces a material effect must itself be a material state.

Gist of Idea

Consciousness affects bodily movement, so thoughts must be material states

Source

David Papineau (Thinking about Consciousness [2002], Intro §6)

Book Reference

Papineau,David: 'Thinking about Consciousness' [OUP 2004], p.8


A Reaction

This is Papineau's simplest possible statement of what he calls the Causal Argument, which he considers to be a knock-down argument for materialism. I agree, but it is really only an intuition. You never know...