Reminder: Presentation in Philosophy Department Tomorrow
Ryan Flannery
the Philosophy Department.
Tomorrow (Friday, 25 January), from 4-6pm in 43 McMicken:
"Multiple Realization, 40 Years Later"
by Thomas Polger (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Cincinnati)
Abstract:
In his "The Nature of Mental States," Hilary Putnam (1967) argued that
his functionalist hypothesis is preferable to the mind-brain identity
theory on the grounds that it better accommodates the fact that mental
states like hunger and pain can be had by such neurologically diverse
creatures as human beings and octopuses. Hunger and pain are, Putnam
argued, multiply realized. Few philosophical theses have been as
quickly and widely accepted as the multiple realization of the mental,
and the consequent rejection of the identity theory. Yet there
remains a good deal of confusion about the nature of the phenomenon of
multiple realization, about the structure of the argument for multiple
realization, and about the actual evidence of multiple realization. In
this talk I address these issues. (This talk draws on a paper
forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, along with several other works
in preparation.)
Tamisra Sanyal will complete his presentation next week, on Wednesday.
-Ryan