Jaegwon Kim's Argument Against Non-reductivism
Kim proposed that one cannot be a physicalist and a non-reductivist. Physicalism, according to Kim, has a principle of causal closure according to which every physical event is fully accountable in terms of physical causes. Claims that bodily movements are caused by the preceding state of the body and decisions/intentions are overdetermined. In other words, if the preceding state of the body is both necessary and sufficient, additional conditions are irrelevant.
Kim also attributes to physicalism the principle of causal exclusion according to which if one event has a sufficient cause at one time, no other event can be the cause. This then poses a problem for mental causation if one believes in the supervenience thesis of physicalism.
Read more about this topic: Physicalism
Famous quotes containing the word argument:
“Argument is conclusive ... but ... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.... For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns ... his hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it ... that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.”
—Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294)