Consciousness regained? Philosophical arguments for and against reductive physicalism.
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience March 1, 2012 Thomas Sturm
The mind-body problem, examined at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience, centers on phenomenal consciousness or 'qualia.' Several skeptical arguments challenge the possibility of explaining qualia in purely physical terms: the knowledge argument, conceivability arguments, the multiple realizability argument, and the explanatory gap argument. None of these arguments proves very convincing, so reductive physicalism remains a defensible position, though not the only option. To avoid dogmatism and naivety, such a view requires ongoing conceptual and methodological reflection alongside empirical research.