Michael Lacewing enquiriesalevelphilosophycouk Substance and properties A substance is an entity a thing that does not depend on another entity for its continued existence It has ontological independence ID: 621697
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Slide1
Physicalism
Michael Lacewing
enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.ukSlide2
Substance and properties
A substance is an entity, a thing, that does not depend on another entity for its continued existence.
It has ‘ontological independence
’.
Substances are what possess properties.
Properties can’t exist without substances
They depend on substances to exist.
Substances persist through changes in
properties.Slide3
Materialism
Dualism
: there are two sorts of substance, mind (or soul) and matter
Minds can exist independent of bodies
Mental
properties are properties of a mental substance
Materialism: there is just one sort of thing, matter
Mental properties are properties of a material substanceSlide4
Physicalism
Physicalism: the only substance is physical substance
‘Matter’ is too crude
‘Physical’: comes under the laws and investigations of physics, and whose essential properties are described by physics
So:
everything
that exists is physical, or depends upon something that is physical
.Slide5
Physicalism
The fundamental nature of the universe is physical:
1) the
properties identified by physics form the fundamental nature of the universe
;
All properties are ontologically dependent on physical properties (identity
or supervenience)
2) physical
laws govern all objects and events in space-time
;Slide6
Physicalism
3) ‘completeness of physics’ (aka ‘causal closure’): every physical event has a sufficient physical cause that brings it about in accordance with the laws of physics.
No non-physical causes are
necessary
for any change of physical properties (e.g. bodily movements)Slide7
Mental and physical properties
There are different physicalist theories of the relation between mental and physical properties
Elimination: there are no mental properties
Reduction (identity): mental properties (e.g. a thought) are identical to certain physical properties (e.g. a pattern of neurons firing)
Ontological reduction: the things in one domain (e.g. mental things) are identical with some of the things in another domain. Slide8
Mental and physical properties
Non-reductive dependency: mental properties ontologically depend on physical properties, but aren’t identical to them
E.g. functionalism: mental properties are functional properties, and these depend on physical propertiesSlide9
Supervenience
Mental properties ‘supervene’ on physical properties
just in case any two things that are exactly alike in their
physical
properties cannot have different
mental properties
Cp. aesthetic properties: two paintings that are physically identical
must
be aesthetically identical
Once all the physical properties are fixed, the aesthetic properties are fixed
It is not possible to change something’s mental properties without changing its physical properties