Physicalism : the philosophical foundations
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Bibliographic Information
Physicalism : the philosophical foundations
Clarendon Press , Oxford University Press, 1994
Available at / 15 libraries
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Hokkaido University, Library, Graduate School of Science, Faculty of Science and School of Science図書
dc20:146/p7572070287270
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [370]-377) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Physicalism is a programme for building a unified system of knowledge based on the view that everything is a manifestation of the physical aspects of existence. Jeffrey Poland presents a comprehensive exploration of the philosophical foundations of this programme. He investigates the core ideas, motivating values, and presuppositions of physicalism; the constraints upon an adequate formulation of physicalist doctrine; the epistemological and modal status, the scope,
and the methodological roles of physicalist principles. He reviews and evaluates major objections to the programme, and considers its significance for philosophy, science, society, and individual persons. An important theme of the book is that recent attempts to formulate a `non-reductive' version
of physicalism are inadequate and that the role of supervenience relations in expressions of physicalist thought is significantly limited.
This is the first sustained and systematic discussion of the major philosophical aspects of the physicalist programme. Professor Poland also examines the relations between physicalism and other philosophical positions, such as realism, empiricism, and relativism, and suggests that physicalism is compatible with a tolerant pluralism in the philosophical, cultural, and personal domains.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 The problem of formulation: preliminaries
- core ideas and values
- gratuitous associations
- criteria for assessing physicalism. Part 2 Review of past formulations: reductionist approaches
- non-reductionist approaches
- diagnosis and conclusions. Part 3 Identification of the physical bases: bases for ontology, ideology and doctrine
- presupposition 1 - divisions between branches of science
- presupposition 2 - determinacy of the bases
- presupposition 3 - the privileged status of physics. Part 4 The theses of physicalism: ontological dependence, supervenience and realization
- determination of fact and truth
- vertical explanation and realization theories. Part 5 The metatheses of physicalism: physicalism and the natural order
- "a posteriori" status and its problems
- methodological roles and the resolution of conflict
- necessity, contingency and physicalist principles. Part 6 Assessment of the physicalist programme: adequate expression of the core ideas and values
- challenges to the acceptability of physicalism
- prospects for success of the physicalist programme. Part 7 Significance of the physicalist programme: physicalism and philosophy
- physicalism and science
- physicalism and culture
- physicalism and the individual.
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