Physicalism

Classification

Position level

specific

Domains

Philosophy of Mind

Overview

Physicalism holds that there is nothing to the mind over and above the physical: mental states are either identical with physical states or wholly fixed by them, so that once the physical facts are settled the mental facts are settled too. Its main support is causal. Mental events seem to make things happen — a decision moves a hand — and the physical world appears causally closed, leaving no work for a non-physical mind that a physical brain is not already doing.

The pressure comes from consciousness. Even granting that the physical story accounts for every movement and every report, critics argue that it leaves out what the experience is like from the inside — the gap pressed by asking what someone who knew every physical fact about colour would still learn on first seeing red.

Position on

• The Mind–Body Problem

Held by traditions

• Epicureanism

  Epicurus held the soul to be a body of very fine atoms spread through the whole frame, which scatters when the body dies.

  Question scope: The Mind–Body Problem

Broader position

• Materialism

Rival positions

• Substance Dualism

  Question scope: The Mind–Body Problem

• Epiphenomenalism

  Question scope: The Mind–Body Problem

References

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Physicalism
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Dualism