Physical Realization (Hardback)

Sydney Shoemaker (author)

£70.00

Hardback 162 Pages
Published: 19/07/2007

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Synopsis

In Physical Realization, Sydney Shoemaker considers the question of how physicalism can be true: how can all facts about the world, including mental ones, be constituted by facts about the distribution in the world of physical properties? Physicalism requires that the mental properties of a person are 'realized in' the physical properties of that person, and that all instantiations of properties in macroscopic objects are realized in microphysical states of affairs. Shoemaker offers an account of both these sorts of realization, one which allows the realized properties to be causally efficacious. He also explores the implications of this account for a wide range of metaphysical issues, including the nature of persistence through time, the problem of material constitution, the possibility of emergent properties, and the nature of phenomenal consciousness.

Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199214396
Number of pages: 162
Weight: 333 g
Dimensions: 222 x 145 x 17 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

There is a wealth of philosophical exploration and argumentation in these chapters. Whether or not the reader agrees with Shoemaker's account of realization, one is forced by the later chapters to consider how one's own account fairs across such a broad range of issues. Such an exercise is of clear value to any philosopher interested in these topics and so I recommend this book to all such philosophers. * Kevin J. McQueen, Philosophical Quarterly *
...this is an excellent book...In virtue of the great clarity of its arguments and the richness of the metaphysical framework within which it is based, I believe that the book will provide one of the central guides to thinking within the mental causation debate, in particular for those seeking to defend a non-reductive physicalism. * Sophie C. Gibb MIND *
...there is much to be learnt from reflection on its wealth of ideas and arguments * Robert Kirk, Analysis Reviews *
...the author sheds new light on many of the fundamental problems facing contemporary metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. Anyone interested in analytic metaphysics and philosophy of mind, at graduate level and beyond, will profit from this innovative book. * Matthew Tugby Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy d *