PSYC 2270H Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Eliminative Materialism, Classical Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics
14 Nov 2018
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Eliminativism: eliminativism the view that conscious or mental states don"t exist, denying mental states altogether, brain states are the only thing that exists. Easy cases of reduction: easy minor corrections, lots of continuity. Example: the reduction of classical gas law to statistical mechanics: most of the old theory is retained, we get identity statements between old terms and new terms, reduction is rarely like this. Hard cases of reduction: hard wholesale/complete replacement. It can even force changes to our observations: we should not assume the reduction from psychology to neuroscience will be easy, involve a lot of retention, or give us identity statements. We may have to change our practices of mental ascription. Mind-brain reduction: folk psychology the everyday observation, description, and explanation of human behaviour, typically in terms of beliefs and desires. It makes no contact with science: builds in misleading assumptions about the relationship between intelligent behaviour and language use.
