Part 1 The problem of formulation: preliminaries; core ideas and values; gratuitous associations; criteria for assessing physicalism. Part 2 Review of past formulations: reductionist approaches; non-reductionist approaches; diagnosis and conclusions. Part 3 Identification of the physical bases: bases for ontology, ideology and doctrine; presupposition 1 - divisions between branches of science; presupposition 2 - determinacy of the bases; presupposition 3 - the privileged status of physics. Part 4 The theses of physicalism: ontological dependence, supervenience and realization; determination of fact and truth; vertical explanation and realization theories. Part 5 The metatheses of physicalism: physicalism and the natural order; "a posteriori" status and its problems; methodological roles and the resolution of conflict; necessity, contingency and physicalist principles. Part 6 Assessment of the physicalist programme: adequate expression of the core ideas and values; challenges to the acceptability of physicalism; prospects for success of the physicalist programme. Part 7 Significance of the physicalist programme: physicalism and philosophy; physicalism and science; physicalism and culture; physicalism and the individual.
`Jeffrey Poland's book defends a version of physicalism along these
lines, and anyone interested in the issue of physicalism, and in
this kind of view, will want to read his book ... Poland's thorough
and ambitious book is ultimately for initiates: those who have
decided that they are physicalists, but want to know exactly what
this means.'
Times Literary Supplement
`Physicalism is a much needed examination of the physicalist
programme and a valuable contribution to the philosophy of science
and metaphysics ... some of the most interesting parts of the book
are precisely where he attempts to show a lack of entailment
between physicalism and other philosophical positions. This is
clearly a valuable philosophical contribution. Physicalism is
an
excellent and important work which should be read by anyone
interested in metaphysics and philosophy of science, language or
mind.'
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
`As far as the selection of topic is concerned, it is certainly a
timely and much needed work ... I believe Poland's book is a
valuable contribution to the debate on the physicalist programme,
and ought to receive appropriate attention in future discussions of
this topic.'
Mind
`An impressive achivement: its scope is well-focused: it is
painstakingly thorough; and it has a good balance between critical
and original material. It is demanding of the reader, but in
return, it rewards the reader by imparting a very common-sensical
vision of a significant and plausible thesis of physicalism ...
Jeffrey Poland's Physicalism provides a valuable map of the moves
and countermoves concerning the
formulation and discussion of one of the most attractive, and yet
elusive, theses of our century.'
Philosophical Psychology
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