- Hardcover: 344 pages
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press (9 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0521827116
- ISBN-13: 978-0521827119
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,885,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
A Physicalist Manifesto
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Review
'This is unquestionably the best elucidation and defense of physicalism as a general world view ever produced by a philosopher.' Michael Tye, The University of Texas, Austin
'This excellent book by Andrew Melnyk is both timely and significant. It is timely because now is a good time to take stock of the physicalist debate over the past half century, and Melnyk does that with impressive systemacity and comprehensiveness. Moreover, the book is an important … contribution to that debate. Melnyk offers us a form of physicalism, 'realization physicalism', that is robustly reductionist and yet non-eliminative - that is, reductive physicalism that respects the integrity of the causal/explanatory claims of the special sciences. Melnyk's physicalism is a far cry from the pale, insubstantial forms of nonreductive physicalism that have been dominant. One particularly valuable aspect of the book is its extensive coverage of the question of empirical support for physicalism. Here, Melnyk goes far beyond those physicalists who take the attitude 'I say that mental states are physical states - refute me if you can!'' Jaegwon Kim, Brown University
'This excellent book by Andrew Melnyk is both timely and significant. It is timely because now is a good time to take stock of the physicalist debate over the past half century, and Melnyk does that with impressive systemacity and comprehensiveness. Moreover, the book is an important … contribution to that debate. Melnyk offers us a form of physicalism, 'realization physicalism', that is robustly reductionist and yet non-eliminative - that is, reductive physicalism that respects the integrity of the causal/explanatory claims of the special sciences. Melnyk's physicalism is a far cry from the pale, insubstantial forms of nonreductive physicalism that have been dominant. One particularly valuable aspect of the book is its extensive coverage of the question of empirical support for physicalism. Here, Melnyk goes far beyond those physicalists who take the attitude 'I say that mental states are physical states - refute me if you can!'' Jaegwon Kim, Brown University
Product Description
A Physicalist Manifesto is a full treatment of the comprehensive physicalist view that, in some important sense, everything is physical. Andrew Melnyk argues that the view is best formulated by appeal to a carefully worked-out notion of realization, rather than supervenience; that, so formulated, physicalism must be importantly reductionist; that it need not repudiate causal and explanatory claims framed in non-physical language; and that it has the a posteriori epistemic status of a broad-scope scientific hypothesis. Two concluding chapters argue in detail that contemporary science provides no significant empirical evidence against physicalism and some considerable evidence for it. Written in a brisk, candid and exceptionally clear style, this book should appeal to professionals and students in philosophy of mind, metaphysics and philosophy of science.
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First Sentence
The main aim of this first chapter is simply to provide a clear and tolerably precise formulation of realization physicalism, the version of physicalism whose consequences and plausibility the remainder of the book examines. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The main aim of this first chapter is simply to provide a clear and tolerably precise formulation of realization physicalism, the version of physicalism whose consequences and plausibility the remainder of the book examines. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding defense of physicalism, 22 April 2009
By A Skeptical Reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy) (Hardcover)
I'm more than a bit surprised that this book has not received any reviews yet. Although it may not be suitable for a general audience due to its use of philosophical terms of art, the arguments given can be followed without too much difficulty by any educated layperson. If you're an agnostic/atheist/secular humanist/skeptic (i.e., you don't believe in ghosts, goblins, or gods), you'll find in this book the philosophical reasoning behind what many people would probably call the "materialist" position, but philosophers call "physicalism." The author argues for a particular type of physicalism called "realization physicalism," which he shows can be framed as a scientific hypothesis. He then goes on to demonstrate how realization physicalism does a better job explaining the world as we know it than any competing viewpoint (such as dualism). If you've read books by Dawkins, Hitchens, Shermer, Martin, Stenger and so on, consider moving up to something more challenging, but ultimately more rewarding.
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