Nonreductive Materialism
Edited by John Donaldson (University of Glasgow)
About this topic
Summary | Nonreductive materialism arose in the 1960s in response to the mind-brain identity theory before evolving into a more general anti-reductionist position of some diversity. Mind-brain identity theory, the earliest form of reductive materialism, asserts that mental states are identical to brain states. Nonreductive materialism denies this, whilst also asserting that materialism, the doctrine that everything is physical, was nevertheless true. The earliest defender of nonreductive materialism, Hilary Putnam, first developed the view via an analogy between computational properties and mental properties: that computational properties can be "realized" by different physical properties, such as mechanical or electronic properties, and that mental properties could be computational too, so also be realized by different physical properties. Thus the "multiple realization argument" was born. Nonreductive materialism then came to be understood as a "third way" between reductive materialist positions and abandoning materialism all together. And this promise led to a near nonreductive-consensus among materialists as the multiple realization argument swept virtually all before it. By the 1990s, however, the view became subject to increasing criticism, especially regarding the bona fides of its materialist credentials, its ability to accommodate mental causation, and the soundness of the multiple realization argument. This led both to the development of different versions of the view and a relative revival of reductionist approaches. The debate about these and related matters continues. |
Key works | According to the standard story, the roots of nonreductive materialism terminate in the work of Putnam 1960, 1967, 1975. Other important contributors to the early form of the view include Davidson 1970; Fodor 1974; and Boyd 1980. The high watermark of the near nonreductive-consensus can be found in Block 1997 and Fodor 1997. Other important developments of nonreductive materialism include: Yablo 1992; Horgan 1997; Antony & Levine 1997; Clapp 2001; Antony 2003; Shoemaker 2007; Loewer 2007; Bennett 2008; Wilson 2009; List & Menzies 2009; and Pereboom 2011. Major objections to nonreductive materialism can be found in: Hill 1991; Kim 1992, 1998, 2005, 2007; Block & Stalnaker 1999; Bechtel 1999; Shapiro 2004; Polger 2004; Bickle 1998; 2010; Gozzano & Hill 2012; Gibb et al 2013; and Polger & Shapiro 2016. |
Introductions | A good place to start is Lynne Rudder Baker's 2009 recent introduction to nonreductive materialism. Daniel Stoljar's 2015 Stanford Encyclopedia entry on physicalism is helpful for situating the nonreductive variety within the larger materialist position. Jaegwon Kim's 2005 is a readable, influential work which discusses the view from a critical perspective. Cynthia MacDonald's 1989 is an accessible and more sympathetic introduction. |
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Related categories
Siblings:
- Reduction in Cognitive Science (405)
- Multiple Realizability (341)
- Psychophysical Reduction, Misc (187)
- Physicalism about the Mind (1,810 | 5)
- Supervenience (605 | 10)
- Emergence (675 | 451)
- Multiple Realizability (341)
- Reduction in Cognitive Science (405)
- Mind-Brain Identity Theory (582)
- The Exclusion Problem (690)
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Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Esa Diaz-Leon Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Aness Kim Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |