Physicalism in Philosophy

Definition

• Physicalism: The philosophical view that everything is physical or supervenes on the physical.
• Opposed to idealism, which views the world as arising from the mind.
• Physicalism implies ontological monism (one substance view of reality), contrasting with dualism (mind-body dualism) and pluralism (many-substance views).
• Related to materialism but broader, as it includes energy, physical laws, space, time, structure, information, and forces, beyond just matter.

Historical Context

• Term "physicalism" introduced in the 1930s by Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap.
• Supervenience: Metaphysical or logical combination of properties, reflecting the idea mental states cannot change without physical states changing.

Types of Physicalism

Type Physicalism

• Also known as mind-body identity theory.
• Mental events are types that correlate with types of physical events (e.g., pain correlates with C-fiber firings).
• Criticism: Multiple realizability - the same mental state can be realized by different physical states.

Token Physicalism

• Every mental event is a particular physical event but lacks a type-to-type mapping between mental and physical events.
• Example: Davidson's anomalous monism.

Reductive and Non-Reductive Physicalism

• Reductive Physicalism: Mental states are reducible to physical states.
• Non-Reductive Physicalism: Emphasizes emergent properties (the whole is more than the sum of its parts) and often leads to property dualism.

Arguments Against Physicalism

Knowledge Argument (Mary's Room)

• Mary, who learns all physical facts about color in a black-and-white room, gains new knowledge upon experiencing color firsthand.
• Challenge: This implies not everything is physical.
• Physicalist Response: Ability hypothesis suggests this gained knowledge is practical (knowledge-how) rather than propositional knowledge.

Philosophical Zombies

• Conceivability argument (Zombie Argument): Imagines a world physically identical to ours but without consciousness.
• Implies consciousness does not supervene on physical states.
• Physicalist Response: Arguments by Galen Strawson and Daniel Dennett challenge the conceivability and coherence of zombies.

Hempel's Dilemma

• Challenges defining physicalism with reference to current or future physics, arguing both approaches are problematic.
• Physicalist Response: Proposals for alternative characterizations, like object-based and via negativa strategies.

Realistic Physicalism

• Galen Strawson's view that physicalism entails panpsychism or micropsychism.
• Argues for the experiential nature of physical phenomena, opposing radical dualism.

Associated Concepts

• Empiricism, Metaphysical naturalism, Cognitive science, Consciousness, Epiphenomenalism, Monism, Ontological pluralism, Philosophy of mind, Reductionism, Supervenience, Multiple realizability.

References and Further Reading

• Works by Chalmers, Dennett, Jackson, Kim, Lewis, and others provide extensive discussions on physicalism and its critiques.