Physicalism: The Philosophical Foundations

ISBN-13: 9780198249801 / Angielski / Twarda / 1994 / 392 str.

Jeffrey Poland

Opis

Physicalism is a program for building a unified system of knowledge about the world on the basis of the view that everything is a manifestation of the physical aspects of existence. Jeffrey Poland presents a systematic and comprehensive exploration of the philosophical foundations of this program. He investigates the core ideas, motivating values, and presuppositions of physicalism; the constraints upon an adequate formulation of physicalist doctrine; the epistemological and modal status, the scope, and the methodological roles of physicalist principles. He reviews and evaluates major objections to the program, and considers its significance for philosophy, science, society, and individual persons. He also examines the relations between physicalism and other philosophical positions, such as realism, empiricism, and relativism, and suggests that physicalism is compatible with a tolerant pluralism in the philosophical, cultural, and personal domains.

Recenzje

An impressive achivement: its scope is well-focused: it is painstakingly thorough; and it has a good balance between critical and original material. It is demanding of the reader, but in return, it rewards the reader by imparting a very common-sensical vision of a significant and plausible thesis of physicalism ... Jeffrey Poland's Physicalism provides a valuable map of the moves and countermoves concerning the formulation and discussion of one of the most attractive, and yet elusive, theses of our century.