Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Boundary Stones of Thought', 'Mind in a Physical World' and 'Elusive Knowledge'

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5 ideas

17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 1. Reductionism critique
Maybe intentionality is reducible, but qualia aren't [Kim]
     Full Idea: It is possible to hold that phenomenal properties (qualia) are irreducible, while holding intentional properties, including propositional attitudes, to be reducible (functionally, or biologically).
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §1 p.017)
     A reaction: This is the position which Kim has settled for, but I find it baffling. If the universe is full of irreducibles that is one thing, but if everything in the universe is reducible except for one tiny item, that is implausible.
17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 4. Emergentism
Emergentism says there is no explanation for a supervenient property [Kim]
     Full Idea: The emergentism (of Searle), like ethical intuitionism, views mind-body supervenience as something that admits no explanation - it is a brute fact.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §1 p.013)
     A reaction: This is why 'emergence' is no sort of theory, and is really old-fashioned dualism in a dubious naturalistic disguise. If mind 'emerges', there is presumably a causal mechanism for that.
The only mental property that might be emergent is that of qualia [Kim]
     Full Idea: If emergentism is correct about anything, it is more likely to be correct about qualia than about anything else.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §4 p.103)
     A reaction: I'm puzzled by a view that says that nearly all of the mind is reducible, but one tiny aspect of it is 'emergent'. What sort of ontology is envisaged by that?
17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 5. Supervenience of mind
Non-Reductive Physicalism relies on supervenience [Kim]
     Full Idea: Many philosophers saw in mind-body supervenience a satisfying metaphysical statement of physicalism without reductionism. This widely influential position is now known as "nonreductive physicalism".
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §1 p.008)
     A reaction: If two things supervene on one another, then we should be asking why. Occasionalism and Parallelism are presumably not the answer. Coldness supervenes on ice.
Maybe strong supervenience implies reduction [Kim]
     Full Idea: Maybe strong supervenience is inconsistent with the irreducibility of the supervenient properties to their subvenient bases.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], §1 p.012)
     A reaction: If two things are really very very supervenient on one another (superdupervenient?), then you have to ask WHY? If there isn't identity, then there is surely a highly lawlike connection?