Methodology and Reductionism in the Philosophy of Mind

摘要

In contemporary philosophy of mind, the mind-body problem is often framed in terms of the reduction of psychology to neuroscience. In this thesis I argue that whether or not one regards such a reduction as tenable depends upon a methodological decision about the importance of our naive intuitions concerning the mind and the material world. I claim that standard anti-reductive argumentative strategies rest upon systematically deceptive and underdeveloped intuitions. As a result, we should reject these intuitions and forms of argumentation and adopt instead a pragmatic philosophy of mind that allows for the principled reduction of psychology, but at the time time maintains a pluralistic methodology.