Category: Eliminative Materialism
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Eliminativism: A ‘Mental’ (Lunatic) Philosophy of Mind?
Arthur W. Collins, The Nature of Mental Things (University of Notre Dame Press, 1987), p. 19: This [eliminative materialism] looms as a lunatic philosophy of mind, as behaviorism does not, because it does not merely attack the thought that beliefs and desires are inner realities . . . but it also attacks the idea that…
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From Naturalism to Nihilism by Way of Scientism: A Note on Rosenberg’s Disenchantment
The rank absurdities of Alex Rosenberg's The Disenchanted Naturalist's Guide to Reality are being subjected to withering criticism at Ed Feser's weblog here, here and here. But a correspondent wants me to throw in my two cents, so here's a brief comment. In the ComBox to the article linked to above, Rosenberg, responding to critics,…
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Eliminative Materialist T-Shirt
On the front: There are no beliefs! On the back: You'd better believe it!
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Paul Churchland on Eliminative Materialism
The most obvious objection to eliminative materialism (EM) is that it denies obvious data, the very data without which there would be no philosophy of mind in the first place. Introspection directly reveals the existence of pains, beliefs, desires, anxieties, pleasures, and the like. Suppose I have a headache. The pain, qua felt, cannot be…
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Eliminative Materialism Defined
A reader inquired about eliminative materialism. In this post I will explain what eliminative materialism is. In later posts, I will indicate why I consider it to be not only false, but irremediably incoherent. 1. An eliminativist about X is simply one who denies the existence of X. Atheists are eliminativists about God; hard determinists…