structure for 'Mind and Body'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     expand these ideas

17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 7. Anti-Physicalism / a. Physicalism critique

[attempts to prove that mind is not just physical]

14 ideas
How can pleasure or judgement occur in a heap of atoms? [Sext.Empiricus on Epicurus]
Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls [Cicero]
If atoms have no qualities, they cannot possibly produce a mind [Plutarch]
Sense is fixed in the material form, and so can't grasp abstract universals [Cudworth]
The 'grain problem' says physical objects are granular, where sensations appear not to be [Sellars, by Polger]
If tree rings contain information about age, then age contains information about rings [Searle]
Identity theory was overthrown by multiple realisations and causal anomalies [Kim]
If mind is just physical, how can it follow the rules required for intelligent thought? [Fodor]
No defences of physicalism can deprive psychology of the ontological authority of other sciences [Mellor/Crane]
Can identity explain reason, free will, non-extension, intentionality, subjectivity, experience? [Rey]
Physicalism offers something called "complexity" instead of mental substance [Rey]
The completeness of physics must be an essential component of any physicalist view of mind [Crane]
Functionalists emphasise that mental processes are not to be reduced to what realises them [Heil]
Do new ideas increase the weight of the brain? [Dance]