Controversies and the metaphysics of mind / Yaron M. Senderowicz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Senderowicz, Yaron M.

Series:

Controversies ; 8.

Controversies ; 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy of mind.

Metaphysics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2010.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Since ancient times, metaphysical theories have been shaped by the dialectical relations between metaphysical positions. The present book offers a new account of the role of controversies in the evolution of ideas in current metaphysics of mind. Part One develops a pragmatic theory of metaphysical controversies that combines Kantian themes and themes from current argumentation theory. The theory developed in this book underscores the role of a unique type of dialectical arguments which establish metaphysical positions as controversial relevant alternatives in the evolution of chains of debates in metaphysics. In Part Two and Part Three, this theory is applied to chains of debates in present day metaphysics of mind which address the problems of consciousness and personal identity. One of the contentions defended in this book is that the intellectual history of metaphysics is not a process in which positions are replaced by opposite positions, but rather, a history of their status as relevant alternatives. The book analyzes in detail and demonstrates how progress in contemporary metaphysics of mind consists in a dialectical process through which challenges to extant positions lead to innovative alternatives that are intrinsically relevant to advancing the understanding of the issues under discussion.

Contents:

Controversies and the Metaphysics of Mind

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Dedication page

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Introduction

2. Rediscovering old truths in a new idiom

3. Metaphysics and metaphysical controversies

4. The Kantian approach to the problem

5. Metaphysical controversies and relevant alternatives

6. The structure of the book

Part One. Outline of a theory of metaphysical controversies

The Kantian framework

2. Metaphysics and Kant's image of science

3. The required revisions

4. The modified framework

5. The first antinomy: The explicit argument

6. The first antinomy: The implicit argument

The idea of controversy and metaphysics

1. The limits of Kant's theory

2. The nature of controversies as polemical dialogues

3. Presumptions and the burden of proof

4. Radically opposed views and chains of controversies

5. The addressee

6. Persuasion and the rational support of reasons

7. Epistemic function

Intuitions, thought experiments, and controversies

2. Intuitions and beliefs

3. The fallibility of intuitions

4. The emendation of intuitions

5. Intuitions and the role of imagined ideal cases

6. Objectual imagining, propositional imagining, and imagining ideal cases

7. Imagined ideal cases and perception

8. Logical matters and "matters of fact"

9. Types of responses to conflicts of intuitions

10. Controversial relevant alternatives

11. Conclusion

Part Two. The knowledge argument

The polemical character of the knowledge arguments

2. Kripke's modal argument for dualism as a polemical argument

3. Nagel's argument

4. Jackson's knowledge argument as a polemical argument

The antinomies of consciousness and their resolutions.

1. Churchland's response to the knowledge argument

2. Jackson's response to Churchland

3. The causal efficacy of conscious qualitative states

4. The paradox of phenomenal consciousness

5. The phenomenal concepts strategy

6. Tye's PANIC account of phenomenal consciousness

7. The knowledge argument and two-dimensional semantics

8. Mind and illusions

A priori knowledge and the explanatory gap

2. Levine's argument

3. Jackson: Serious metaphysics and conceptual analysis

3.1 Entry by entailment

3.2 Conceptual analysis

4. Chalmers: Supervenience and scientific explanations

5. Block &amp

Stalnaker's attack

5.1 The arguments against the epistemic version

5.2 The apriority of reductive explanations and uniqueness

5.3 The explanatory gap and two-dimensional semantics

6. Chalmers &amp

Jackson's response

7. Chalmers's two-dimensionalism refined

8. Conclusion

Part Three. Personal identity and revisionary metaphysics

Personal identity, self-consciousness, and bodily identity

2. Strawson's Individuals

3. Williams: Personal identity and individuation

4. Shoemaker: Self-Knowledge and Self-Identity

From transcendental arguments to revisionary metaphysics

1. Wiggins: Relative identity and personhood

2. Shoemaker: Quasi-memory and revisionary metaphysics

2.1 Wiggins on identity

2.2 Persons and their pasts

Neo-Lockeanism, reductionism, and animalism

2. Self-identity and self-concern

3. Parfit and "what matters"

4. Perry

identity and "what matters"

5. Wiggins's animalism

6. Conclusion

Conclusion

References

Index

The series Controversies.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612721601

9781282721609

1282721607

9789027287915

9027287910

OCLC:

663885798