An Encounter Between Aristotle And Contemporary Philosophy of Mind The Case of Reductive Physicalism As Espoused By Jaegwon Kim

dc.contributor.advisorRuttkamp-Bloem, Emma
dc.contributor.emaileugene.oguamanam@yahoo.comen_ZA
dc.contributor.postgraduateOguamanam, Eugene Ezenwa
dc.date.accessioned2020-06-09T20:21:42Z
dc.date.available2020-06-09T20:21:42Z
dc.date.created2020
dc.date.issued2020
dc.descriptionThesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria 2020.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractI argue in this thesis that Aristotle’s hylomorphic metaphysics, supported by his theory of causality and his theory of the soul (De Anima), holds the key to solving the problem of mental causation in contemporary philosophy of mind. A core aspect of the contemporary mind-body problem is the problem of mental causation (how does the mind interact with the body to cause actions in humans). Without mental causation, in the realist sense of the word, it is difficult to see how humans are held responsible for their actions. There have been different approaches to solving the mind-body problem, but each has met with its own set of problems, except, I argue, Aristotle’s hylomorphism. Jaegwon Kim argues that Davidson’s anomalous monism cum supervenience renders mental causation epiphenomenal, and that a mental state is causally efficacious only when reduced to the physical properties. I argue that it is the phenomenal consciousness that accounts for our actions, and while neither Davidson’s nor Kim’s accounts of action can adequately deal with phenomenal consciousness, Aristotle’s metaphysics can. I argue that the ancient and neo-Aristotelian notion of self-knowledge is akin to our contemporary notion of phenomenal consciousness and that Aristotle saves the notion of autonomous mental causation through his theory of hylomorphism that holds every substance is a composite of matter (body) and form (soul). My thesis is thus a novel invitation to rethink Aristotle’s psychology and philosophy of mind in the context of contemporary philosophy of mind.en_ZA
dc.description.availabilityUnrestricteden_ZA
dc.description.degreeDPhilen_ZA
dc.description.departmentPhilosophyen_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity of Pretoria(Postgraduate Bursary (2017-2018)en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationOguamanam, EE 2020, An Encounter Between Aristotle And Contemporary Philosophy of Mind The Case of Reductive Physicalism As Espoused By Jaegwon Kim, DPhil Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74925>en_ZA
dc.identifier.otherS2020en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/74925
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoria
dc.rights© 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subjectUCTDen_ZA
dc.subjectPhilosophy of Minden_ZA
dc.subjectMind-Body Problemen_ZA
dc.subjectReductive and Non-Reductive Physicalismen_ZA
dc.subjectPhenomenal consciousnessen_ZA
dc.subjectCausal Closure Argumenten_ZA
dc.titleAn Encounter Between Aristotle And Contemporary Philosophy of Mind The Case of Reductive Physicalism As Espoused By Jaegwon Kimen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA

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