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Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Group Talk (Adam Pautz, Brown)
Thursday October 25, 2018, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
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The Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group welcomes Adam Pautz, professor in the Department of Philosophy at Brown University. Professor Pautz’s current research project is a “consciousness-first” program in the philosophy of mind. His book, Perception: How Mind Connects to World is forthcoming from Routledge Press.
Talk title
The Significance Argument for the Irreducibility of Consciousness
Talk abstract
The Significance Argument (SA) for the irreducibility of consciousness is based on a series of new puzzle-cases that I call “multiple candidate cases”. In these cases, there is a multiplicity of physical-functional properties or relations that are candidates to be identified with the sensible qualities and our consciousness of them, where those candidates are not significantly different. I will argue that these cases show that reductive materialists cannot accommodate the various ways in which consciousness is significant. I also will argue that a nonreductive theory of the conscious-of relation can easily provide a very satisfying, unified explanation of the ways in which this relation is significant.
My talk will be based on my paper “The Significance Argument for the Irreducibility of Consciousness,” though course my talk will not presuppose familiarity with the paper.
https://philpapers.org/archive/PAUTSA.pdf
About the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Research Group
One of five departmental research interest groups, the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Group undertakes research in philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, traditional and formal epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of language.
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