Baetu, Tudor (2022) A Mechanistic Guide to Reductive Physicalism. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Causal mediation mechanisms are well supported by available experimental evidence and provide a practicable way to reductive physicalism. According to the causal mediation account of mechanistic explanation, descriptions as diverse as ‘black-box’ phenomena, mechanistic sketches and schemas mixing physically interpreted and operationalized biological, psychological and social variables, and detailed descriptions of mechanisms refer to the same causal structure circumscribed within the spatiotemporal boundaries of a replicable experimental setup. The coreference of coarser- and finer-grained descriptions of causal structures opens new possibilities for testing the reductive physicalism conjecture. I discuss experimental designs supporting the causal mediation account and show how recent studies demonstrating the biological mediation of mind-mind causal processes can provide evidence for reductive physicalism.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Baetu, Tudor tbaetu@hotmail.com
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Tudor Baetu
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2022 17:42
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2022 17:42
Item ID:	21256
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1007/s13194-022-00489-3
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	2022
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21256

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