0%
logo

Constitutive panpsychism and the problem of mental causation

15 June, 2018

Kuznetsov A.
First pub. in: Вестник Московского университета. Серия 7, Философия. – 2015.


The paper presents one of the contemporary theories of consciousness –  a constitutive panpsychism of David Chalmers. Suggestion of protophenomenal properties intends to reconcile the dualistic intuition with the naturalistic view of the world, to close the «explanatory gap». At the heart of this movement is an attempt to solve the problem of mental causation, for it raises the main difficulties in understanding how the acts of consciousness are placed among physical events, being the source of the crisis for any dualistic conception. But, as I’m trying to show, an attempt to solve the problem of mental causation leads to the denial of  the foundation of constitutive panpsychism – the identity of the primary and secondary intensions of the term «consciousness», which is, perhaps, the only one strict bases of the anti-physicalist arguments.

More on this topic

Lectures

Mind, Brain and Free Will. Research Seminar of the Center for Consciousness Studies

The seminar has been devoted to the book of the distinguished Oxford philosopher Richard Swinburne “Mind, Brain and Free Will”. Swinburn takes an unpopular position for nowdays, defending the subs...
May 2018
Lectures

Conference on The Personal Identity Problem. Recordings of the Presentations

The problem of personal identity is one of the most discussed in contemporary philosophy. It includes questions about the Self, personality, its identity in time and its unity. On May 17, 2018 at...
May 2018