BUT WHAT DOES“ RADICAL MEAN IN THIS CONTEXT? How radical a species of materialism is, is measured in terms of how remote it is from dualism. In this sense, the token-to-token identity theory is the least radical one, the eliminative materialism is the most radical one, and the type to-type materialism is something in the middle There are other species of materialism which are weaker or less radical than eliminative materialism, but we will talk about them later
BUT WHAT DOES “RADICAL” MEAN IN THIS CONTEXT? How radical a species of materialism is, is measured in terms of how remote it is from dualism. In this sense, the token-to-token identity theory is the least radical one, the eliminative materialism is the most radical one, and the typeto-type materialism is something in the middle. There are other species of materialism which are weaker or less radical than eliminative materialism, but we will talk about them later
A COUPLE OF ELIMINATIVISTS IN CALIFORNIA (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, OR UCSD) Patricia smith Paul churchland(保尔邱 Churchland(帕琪夏娅邱 琪兰德, born oct.21, 琪兰德, born July16,1943, 1942, Canada) Canada)
A COUPLE OF ELIMINATIVISTS IN CALIFORNIA (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO , OR UCSD) Paul Churchland (保尔· 邱 琪兰德， born Oct. 21, 1942, Canada) Patricia Smith Churchland (帕琪夏娅· 邱 琪兰德， born July 16, 1943, Canada)
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM FOR CHURCHLANDS As we know the le target of eliminative materialism is our commonsensical account of mentality which is expected to be eliminated o And the elimination of this sort is also supposed to be parallel to the elimination of phlogiston in chemistry o But our commonsensical account of mentality is not something like a theory of ether or a theory of Phlogiston, since they are typical scientific theories, whereas our common sense is just a loose talk o Did Churchlands choose a wrong target?
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM FOR CHURCHLANDS: As we know, the target of eliminative materialism is our commonsensical account of mentality, which is expected to be eliminated. And the elimination of this sort is also supposed to be parallel to the elimination of phlogiston in chemistry. But our commonsensical account of mentality is not something like a theory of ether or a theory of Phlogiston, since they are typical scientific theories, whereas our common sense is just a loose talk. Did Churchlands choose a wrong target?
THERE IS A CHEAP FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM Just say that our commonsensical account of mentality suffices for a theory, i.e., FOLK PSYCHOLOGY(俗成心理学) Folk psychology is assumed to consist of both generalizations(or laws) and specific theoretical posits denoted by our everyday psychological terms like belief or pain. The generalizations are assumed to describe the various causal or counterfactual relations and regularities of the posits. For instance, a typical example of a folk psychological generalization would be If someone has the desire for X and the belief that the best way to get X is by doing Y, then (barring certain conditions) that person will tend to do y If I have the desire for water and the belief that the best way to get water is to buy a bottle of water from the super market, then (barring certain conditions)I will tend to buy a bottle of water in a supermarket
THERE IS A CHEAP FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM: Just say that our commonsensical account of mentality suffices for a theory, i.e., FOLK PSYCHOLOGY (俗成心理学). Folk psychology is assumed to consist of both generalizations (or laws) and specific theoretical posits, denoted by our everyday psychological terms like ‘belief’ or ‘pain’. The generalizations are assumed to describe the various causal or counterfactual relations and regularities of the posits. For instance, a typical example of a folk psychological generalization would be: If someone has the desire for X and the belief that the best way to get X is by doing Y, then (barring certain conditions) that person will tend to do Y. If I have the desire for water and the belief that the best way to get water is to buy a bottle of water from the super market, then (barring certain conditions) I will tend to buy a bottle of water in a supermarket