The Emergence of Mind in a Physical World

This book presents an ontologically and methodologically well founded Physicalist proposal that does not lose sight of the special particularity and alleged irreducibility of some of the most obvious phenomena of our existence, such as the human mind. The author provides a compelling argument against the most widely accepted interpretation of Physicalism, Microphysicalism. Morales argues in favor of Emergentism as a non-reductive physicalist proposal that explains the causal reality of higher-level properties as metaphysically dependent but not supervenient on their microphysical bases.

The emergence of mind in a physical world presents an ontologically and methodologically well founded physicalist proposal that does not lose sight of the special particularity and alleged irreducibility of some of the most obvious phenomena of our existence, such as the human mind. The author provides a compelling argument against the most widely accepted interpretation of physicalism, microphysicalism, highlighting its deep empirical and conceptual problems, as well as an insightful response to the reiterated critiques leveled by some reductionist philosophers, especially Jaegwon Kim, at the non-reductive physicalist explanation of the causal relevance of mental and higher level properties. Morales argues in favor of emergentism as a non-reductive physicalist proposal that explains the causal reality of higher-level properties as metaphysically bases. This novel interpretation will be of great interest to scholars working in the field of philosophy of mind.