Modal arguments against materialism

Noûs 55 (2):426-444 (2021)
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Abstract

We review existing strategies for bringing modal intuitions to bear against materialist theories of consciousness, and then propose a new strategy. Unlike existing strategies, which assume that imagination (suitably constrained) is a good guide to modal truth, the strategy proposed here makes no assumptions about the probative value of imagination. However, unlike traditional modal arguments, the argument developed here delivers only the conclusion that we should not believe that materialism is true, not that we should believe that it is false.

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Author's Profile

Michael Pelczar
National University of Singapore

Citations of this work

Zombies.Robert Kirk - 2003 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

Does conceivability entail possibility.David J. Chalmers - 2002 - In Tamar Szabo Gendler & John Hawthorne (eds.), Conceivability and Possibility. Oxford University Press. pp. 145--200.
What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (October):435-50.
Naming and Necessity.Saul Kripke - 1980 - Philosophy 56 (217):431-433.

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