How Philosophy of Mind Needs Philosophy of Chemistry

By the 1960s, most philosophers had adopted physicalism, the view that physical causes fully account for mental activities, but disagreement persists about what counts as physical causes. Reductive physicalists recognize only microphysical causality, while non-reductive physicalists hold that entities studied by special sciences have causal powers. The authors argue that philosophy of chemistry can help resolve issues in philosophy of mind in three ways: developing an extended mereology for chemical combination, testing whether singularities prevent reduction of chemistry to microphysics, and demonstrating downward causation in complex chemical reaction networks.

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Abstract

By the 1960s many, perhaps most, philosophers had adopted ‘physicalism’ – the view that physical causes fully account for mental activities. However, controversy persists about what counts as ‘physical causes’. ‘Reductive’ physicalists recognize only microphysical (elementary-particle-level) causality. Many, perhaps most, physicalists are ‘non-reductive’ – they hold that entities considered by other ‘special’ sciences have causal powers. Philosophy of chemistry can help resolve main issues in philosophy of mind in three ways: developing an extended mereology applicable to chemical combination; testing whether ‘singularities’ prevent reduction of chemistry to microphysics; and demonstrating ‘downward causation’ in complex networks of chemical reactions.