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    The mind-brain identity theory can be established without... — Carmelics
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    The mind-brain identity theory can be established without relying on parsimony considerations

    Consciousness & MindTruth & Knowledge
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.An argument from the causal efficacy of experience is sufficient to establish the identity theory
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    • 2.The abductive parsimony step is unnecessary and possibly unsound
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Causal efficacy arguments for identity theory presuppose that mental causation requires type-identity, which epiphenomenalism and anomalous monism deny.
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    • 2.Davidson's anomalous monism shows mental events can be causally efficacious as token-physical without establishing type-identity between mental and neural kinds.
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    • 3.Therefore causal efficacy alone underdetermines identity theory relative to its competitors, making parsimony or additional premises indispensable.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kripke's modal argument establishes that if pain is C-fiber firing, this is necessarily true, yet we can conceive of pain without C-fiber firing.
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    • 2.No causal efficacy argument can dissolve this conceivability gap without invoking theoretical economy to prefer identity over property dualism.
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    • 3.Therefore the identity theory cannot be established from causal premises alone without implicitly relying on parsimony to block modal objections.
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    Consciousness & MindTruth & Knowledge

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    Causation1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    An argument from the causal efficacy of experience is sufficient to establish th...Causal efficacy arguments for identity theory presuppose that mental causation r...Davidson's anomalous monism shows mental events can be causally efficacious as t...Kripke's modal argument establishes that if pain is C-fiber firing, this is nece...
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    No causal efficacy argument can dissolve this conceivability gap without invokin...The abductive parsimony step is unnecessary and possibly unsoundTherefore causal efficacy alone underdetermines identity theory relative to its ...

    Similar

    The mind-brain identity theory is preferable to dualism89%Dualistic theories and mind-brain identity theories do not tie mental ...86%Kripke's challenge to the mind-brain identity theory fails because it ...84%An identity theorist finds no trouble with the ordinary, non-theoretic...84%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: david-lewis
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    Lewis’s first, and most important, use of Ramsification was to argue for the mind-brain identity theory, in “An Argument for the Identity Theory”. Lewis claims in this paper that his argument does not rely on parsimony considerations. The orthodox argument for the identity theory at the time, as in e.g. J. J. C. Smart (1959), turned on parsimony. The identity theory and dualism explain the same data, but the dualist explanation involves more ontology than the identity theory explanation. So the
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Therefore the identity theory cannot be established from causal premises alone w...
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    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
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