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Restrepo Echavarría, R. (2023). Scientific Realism and Mind. Discusiones Filosóficas, 24(42), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.17151/difil.2023.24.42.5
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Abstract
Standard Scientific Realism holds the metaphysical view that the world is the way it is independent of the mind. However, this paper demonstrates how this view is incompatible with all noneliminativist theories of mind, leading it to be inconsistent, incompatible with science, and eliminating consciousness, intentionality, mental causation and ethics. An alternative realist thesis is proposed which preserves the idea that generally the world is the way it is independent of what we think of it, compatible with mind as a real part of the world. This reform restores the possibility of consistency, mind, consciousness, intentionality, science and ethics.
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References
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Wittengstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1922.
Yablo, Stephen. “The Real Distinction Between Mind and Body.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 20, 1990, pp. 149-201. DOI: 10.1080/00455091.1990.10717225
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin, 1963.
Berkeley, George. Principles of Human Knowledge. Penguin, 1710/2004.
Block, Ned. “Introduction: What is Functionalism?” In Readings in Philosophy of Psychology vol. 1. Harvard University Press, 1980, pp. 171-184.
Cárdenas Castañeda, Leonardo. “La Inferencia a la Mejor Explicación en el Debate Realismo/Anti-realismo.” Discusiones Filosóficas 12, 2011, pp. 89-105. http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/difil/v12n18/v12n18a04.pdf
Carnap, Rudolph, Hans Hahn & Neurath, Otto. The Scientific World Conception: The Vienna Circle. Ernest Mach Society, 1929.
Chalmers, David. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Chakravartty, Anjan. “Scientific Realism.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017. Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
Chomsky, Noam. “Biolingüística y Capacidad Humana.” Forma y Función, 19, 2006, pp. 57-71.
Costa, Petra. The Edge of Democracy. Netflix, 2019.
Descartes, René. The Philosophical Works of Descartes. Cambridge University Press, 1641/1911.
Eddington, Arthur. The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge University Press, 1928.
Einstein, A. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. John Stachel, et al. eds. Princeton University Press, 1987.
Einstein, A. “The Theory of the Affine Field.” Nature, 112, 1923, pp. 448-449. https://www.nature.com/articles/112448a0
Fleetwood, Steve. “Bhaskar and Critical Realism.” Oxford Handbook on Contemporary Sociology, Social Theory and Organizational Studies. Oxford University Press.
Giovanelli, Marco. “Einstein’s Philosophy of Science.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019. Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/einstein-philscience/
Greenwald, Glenn. “NSA Collecting Data on Millions of Verizon Customers Daily.” The Guardian, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order
Hempel, Carl. “The Logical Analysis of Psychology.” In Ned Block, Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology. Harvard University Press, 1935/1980.
Herman, Edward & Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media. Pantheon, 1988/2002.
Jackson, F. “What Mary Did Not Know.” Journal of Philosophy, 83, No. 5, 1986, pp. 291-295. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%28198605%2983%3A5%3C291%3AWMDK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
Kastrup, Bernardo. “The Universe in Consciousness.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 25, 2018, pp. 125-155. https://www.imprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kastrup_Open_Access.pdf
Kim, Jaegwon. Physicalism, or Something Near Enough. Princeton University Press, 2005.
Lewis, David. “Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50, 1972, pp. 249–258. https://andrewmbailey.com/dkl/Psychophysical_and_Theoretical.pdf
Macdonald, Cynthia & Graham Macdonald. 2006. “The Metaphysics of Mental Causation.” The Journal of Philosophy, 103, pp. 539-576. https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil20061031110
Penrose, Roger. The Emperor’s New Mind. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Pereboom, Derk. “Robust Nonreductive Materialism.” Journal of Philosophy, 99, 2002, pp. 499–531. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3655563
Plato. Theatetus. Oxford University Press, 369BC/2014.
Popper, Karl & John Eccles. The Self and Its Brain. Springer, 1977.
Psillos, Stathis. “Scientific Realism and Metaphysics.” Knowing the Structure of Nature. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234666_2
Psillos, Stathis. Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth. Routledge, 1999.
Railton, Peter. “Moral Realism.” Philosophical Review, 95, 1986, pp. 163–207.
Ramsey, William. “Eliminative Materialism.” Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2019. Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/
Russell, Bertrand. The Analysis of Matter. Routledge, 1927/2001.
Sankey, Howard. “Ciencia, Sentido Común y Realidad.” Discusiones Filosóficas 11, 2010, pp. 41-58.
Smart, JJC. “Sensations and Brain Processes.” The Philosophical Review, 68, 1959, pp. 141-156.
Turing, Alan. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind, 59, 1950, pp. 433–460. https://academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238
Van Fraassen, Bas. 1980. The Scientific Image. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wittengstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1922.
Yablo, Stephen. “The Real Distinction Between Mind and Body.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 20, 1990, pp. 149-201. DOI: 10.1080/00455091.1990.10717225
