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The Material Mind: Foreword and Acknowledgements

The Material Mind
Foreword and Acknowledgements
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table of contents
  1. Half Title Page
  2. BSPS Open Series
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. List of Figures
  7. Foreword and Acknowledgements
  8. Introduction
  9. Chapter 1: Unity of Science and Reduction
    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. Deductive and Ontological Unification
    3. 3. The Deductive-Nomological Model of Reduction
    4. 4. The Model of Reduction by Analogy
    5. 5. The Reduction of Thermodynamics to Classical Mechanics
    6. 6. The Synthetic Model of Reduction
    7. 7. The Reduction of Cognitive Phenomena by Neurophysiology: Elimination or Co-Evolution?
    8. 8. Conclusion
  10. Chapter 2: Can Reductive Explanations Be Constructed A Priori?
    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. A Priori Reduction in the Framework of Two-Dimensional Semantics
    3. 3. Two Concepts of Reduction and Realization: Micro-Macro and Role-Occupant
    4. 4. Multi-Realizability
    5. 5. Conclusion
  11. Chapter 3: Cognitive Abilities as Macroscopic Dispositional Properties
    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. General Arguments against the Efficacy of Dispositions
    3. 3. Dispositional and Theoretical Properties
    4. 4. The Epiphenomenal Trilemma of Macroscopic Dispositions
    5. 5. The Example of Colour Representation
    6. 6. Dispositional Properties with Multiple Manifestations
    7. 7. Conclusion
  12. Chapter 4: Emergent Properties
    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. Minimal Conditions and Weak Emergence
    3. 3. Broad and the Epistemic Conception of Emergence
    4. 4. Strong Emergence in Terms of the Impossibility of Deduction
    5. 5. Emergence as Non-Aggregativity
    6. 6. Emergence in Terms of Non-Linear Interaction and Mill’s Principle of the Composition of Causes
    7. 7. Qualitative and Quantitative Difference
    8. 8. The Limits of Explaining Emergent Properties
    9. 9. Avoiding Panpsychism
    10. 10. Response to a Version of Kripke’s Argument against the Identity Theory
    11. 11. Emergence, Reduction, and Supervenience
    12. 12. Conclusion
  13. Chapter 5: The Causal Efficacy of High-Level Properties
    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. Causality, Causal Responsibility, and Causal Explanation
    3. 3. Mental Causation and Downward Causation
      1. 3.1. Macrocausation without an Underlying Microscopic Mechanism
      2. 3.2. Kim’s Argument against Mental Causation: Preliminaries
      3. 3.3. The First Part of Kim’s Argument: No Mental Causation without Downward Causation
      4. 3.4. The Second Part of Kim’s Argument: No Downward Causation
    4. 4. Mental Properties or Physical Properties Conceived with Mental Concepts?
    5. 5. Conclusion
  14. Conclusion
  15. References
  16. Index

Foreword and Acknowledgements

This book is the result of a long project beginning in 2002. A new version of the French edition, first published in 2016, appeared in 2023.

Many people have helped me to clarify my ideas about the place of the mind in nature and about the concepts of reduction, emergence, and disposition on which my analysis is based. Of those who helped me to improve my arguments, I would like to mention François Athané, Alexander Bird, Tim Crane, Javier Cumpa, Alexandre Guay, Paul Noordhof, Robert Kirk, Georges Jobert, Alex Manafu, Thomas Pradeu, and Jürgen Schröder as well as my colleagues in the philosophy departments of Université Paris X-Nanterre, Université Pierre Mendès-France in Grenoble, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut Jean Nicod, Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques, and Centre d’histoire des philosophies modernes de la Sorbonne. I am much indebted to Reinaldo Bernal Velasquez, who read a version of the entire manuscript and provided me with numerous critical comments; to Etienne Ligout, Yanis Pianko, and Vincent Ardourel for their generous advice concerning physics; and to Duncan Lee and Dallas Harrison, who helped me to improve the English version.

I would like to thank the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS — Centre national de la recherche scientifique) for funding my two-year research stay at Institut Jean Nicod from 2002 to 2004; the French National Research Agency (ANR — Agence nationale de la recherche) for funding my research project “Metaphysics of Science” between 2012 and 2015; Durham University (UK) for funding the “Emergent Phenomena in Materials” project (2014–15) as part of the Durham Emergence Project; and Institut Universitaire de France for funding a partial research leave during the preparation of the manuscript.

I am grateful to David Teira for encouraging me to submit the book manuscript to BSPS Open and for his generous support. Warm thanks to Véronique Antomarchi for sharing everything.

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