PSY E243 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Physicalism, Thought Experiment, Emergence
Document Summary
Physicalism: all things can be reduced to their physical properties and are governed by the laws of physics i. e. what is real and what is observable. Gives strong preference to scientific modes of inquiry. A cornerstone of behaviorism (and science in general) On the surface: seems obvious and uncontroversial. Everything obeys the laws of physics and is defined by physical properties. Psychological phenomena make for the most interesting test of the physicalist perspective: The knowledge or what it"s like argument: Knowledge of phenomenal experience cannot be learned or derived from complete physical knowledge. Gestalt: a coherent whole, characterized by emergent properties and self-organization. Looking at a person holistically looking at their passions, desires, hands, heart, toes, body, etc. At the very least, a physicalist perspective constrains the questions we ask and the explanations we consider. E. f. schumacher"s (1977) posed a thought experiment: Material world can be subdivided into minerals, plants, Phenomenology: the conscious experience of the world.
