Physical realization / Sydney Shoemaker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shoemaker, Sydney.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Realism.

Materialism.

Logical positivism.

Causation.

Philosophy of mind.

Physical Description:

x, 151 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In Physical Realization, Sydney Shoemaker considers the question of how physicalism can be true: how can all facts about the world, including mental ones, be constituted by facts about the distribution in the world of physical properties? Physicialism requires that the mental properties of a person are 'realized in' the physical properties of that person, and that all instantiations of properties in macroscopic objects are realized in microphysical states of affairs. Shoemaker offers an account of both these sorts of realization, one which allows the realized properties to be causally efficacious. He also explores the implications of this account for a wide range of metaphysical issues, including the nature of persistence through time, the problem of material constitution, the possibility of emergent properties, and the nature of phenomenal consciousness.

Contents:

Property realization

Microrealization

Functional properties, emergent properties, and phony properties

Metaphysical applications

Realization of qualia

Appendix : the causal theory of properties.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [145]-148) and index.

ISBN:

9780199214396

0199214395

OCLC:

86166529