Physicalism  

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 +"[[Physicalism]] is false." --Frank Cameron Jackson, "[[Epiphenomenal Qualia]]" (1982)
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 +[[Image:Duck of Vaucanson.jpg|thumb|200px|
 +This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the ''[[materialism]]'' series.<br>Illustration:<small>The '''''Canard Digérateur''''', or '''[[Digesting Duck]]''', an automaton in the form of duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739</small>]]
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-:''[[blasphemy]], [[libertinism]], [[anticlericalism]], [[atheism]], [[heresy]], [[profanity]], [[counterculture]], [[freethought]]''+In philosophy, '''physicalism''' is the [[ontological]] thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything [[supervenience|supervenes]] on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological [[monism]]—a "one [[Substance theory|substance]]" view of the nature of reality as opposed to a "two-substance" ([[dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]]) or "many-substance" ([[Pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]]) view. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated.
-# Constant concern over material [[possession]]s and [[wealth]]; a great or excessive regard for [[worldly]] concerns.+
-# The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical (also called [[physicalism]]).+
-==European Enlightenment==+
-:''[[History of materialism]]''+
-During the [[Enlightenment]] [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[Pierre Gassendi]] represent the materialist tradition, in opposition to [[René Descartes]]' attempts to provide the [[natural sciences]] with [[dualism|dualist]] foundations. Later are materialist and [[atheism|atheist]] [[Jean Meslier]], [[Julien Offroy de La Mettrie]], Paul-Henri Thiry [[Baron d'Holbach]], [[Denis Diderot]] and other minor French [[The Enlightenment|enlightenment]] thinkers, as well as [[Ludwig Feuerbach]], and, in England, the pedestrian traveller [[John "Walking" Stewart]], whose insistence that all matter is endowed with a [[moral]] dimension had a major impact on the philosophical poetry of [[William Wordsworth]].+
-[[Schopenhauer]] wrote that "...materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself." He claimed that an observing subject can only know material objects through the mediation of the brain and its particular organization. The way that the brain knows determines the way that material objects are experienced. "Everything objective, extended, active, and hence everything material, is regarded by materialism as so solid a basis for its explanations that a reduction to this (especially if it should ultimately result in thrust and counter-thrust) can leave nothing to be desired. But all this is something that is given only very indirectly and conditionally, and is therefore only relatively present, for it has passed through the machinery and fabrication of the brain, and hence has entered the forms of time, space, and causality, by virtue of which it is first of all presented as extended in space and operating in time."+Physicalism is closely related to [[materialism]]. Physicalism grew out of materialism with the success of the physical sciences in explaining observed phenomena. The terms are often used interchangeably, although they are sometimes distinguished, for example on the basis of physics describing more than just matter (including energy and physical law). Common arguments against physicalism include both the [[philosophical zombie]] argument and the multiple observers argument, that the existence of a physical being may imply zero or more distinct conscious entities.
- +
-== See also ==+
-*[[Base materialism]]+
 +==See also==
 +* [[Monism]]
 +* [[Ontological pluralism]]
 +* [[Presentism (philosophy of time)|Presentism]]
 +* [[Materialism]]
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"Physicalism is false." --Frank Cameron Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982)

 This page Physicalism is part of the materialism series.Illustration:The Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, an automaton in the form of duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739
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This page Physicalism is part of the materialism series.
Illustration:The Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, an automaton in the form of duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739

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In philosophy, physicalism is the ontological thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substance" view of the nature of reality as opposed to a "two-substance" (dualism) or "many-substance" (pluralism) view. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated.

Physicalism is closely related to materialism. Physicalism grew out of materialism with the success of the physical sciences in explaining observed phenomena. The terms are often used interchangeably, although they are sometimes distinguished, for example on the basis of physics describing more than just matter (including energy and physical law). Common arguments against physicalism include both the philosophical zombie argument and the multiple observers argument, that the existence of a physical being may imply zero or more distinct conscious entities.

See also




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