“My first degree was in mathematics. That was great, but it didn't help with many of the things that puzzled me. I became a philosopher because I wanted to understand everything, especially those things that didn't make sense. And that has continued to be my philosophical motivation. That's one reason I have such a roving philosophical eye - once I have figured out a philosophical topic to my satisfaction, I find myself moving on to new problems.” FirstsReasonHelpingProblemEyeWantedMovingMotivationDegreesPhilosophicalMathematicsPhilosopherSatisfactionMake SenseTopicsPuzzledRoving Author:David Papineau
“A century ago mainstream science was still quite happy to countenance vital and mental powers which had a 'downwards' causal influence on the physical realm in a straightforwardly interactionist way. It was only in the middle of the last century that science finally concluded that there are no such non-physical forces. At which point a whole pile of smart philosophers (Feigl, Smart, Putnam, Davidson, Lewis) quickly pointed out that mental, biological and social phenomena must themselves be physical, in order to produce the physical effects that they do.” WayStillsWholeLastsOrderForceSocialInfluenceMiddleEffectsCenturyProduceSmartPhilosopherRealmsMainstreamCountenanceMental PowerPhysical Force Author:David Papineau
“Philosophers sometimes also use 'reductionist' more strictly, to mean 'type-identities' between mental and physical categories, and to exclude 'non-reductive physicalisms' like metaphysical functionalism.” MeanSometimesUseIdentityTypePhilosopherCategoriesMetaphysical Author:David Papineau
“Of course, there remains the question of why we should find mind-brain identities so persistently counter-intuitive, if they are true. But this is a simple psychological question, and there are a number of plausible explanations. Indeed this is a topic that is quite extensively discussed outside philosophy, by developmental psychologists and theorists of religion among others, under the heading of 'intuitive dualism'. It is rather shocking that so few of the many philosophers working on 'the explanatory gap' are familiar with this empirical literature.” IfsShouldMindPhilosophyCoursesLiteratureSimpleNumbersBrainIdentityRemainsPhilosopherFamiliarPsychologicalExplanationGapsTopicsShockingIntuitivePsychologistHeadingsPlausibleTheoristsDualismDevelopmental Author:David Papineau
“A certain kind of methodologically-minded philosopher of science is quick to read off metaphysical conclusions from features of scientific practice. Chemists don't derive their laws from fundamental physics, so reductive physicalism must be false. Biologists refer to natural numbers in some of their explanations, so numbers must exist. I think that this kind of thing makes for bad philosophy.” ThinkingKindPhilosophyLawCertainNaturalNumbersPracticeFundamentalsPhilosopherPhysicsConclusionFeaturesExplanationMetaphysicalBiologistChemist Author:David Papineau
