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Physicalism And Humanism, Robert Sheehan

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

In recent years philosophers have been discussing the pros and cons of the "Identity Hypothesis" of Herbert Feig! (Feig!, 1958). The Identity Hypothesis holds that feelings, expressed or described in phenomenalist language, are identical to brain states as described by rapidly developing neural science. The discussions abound with Ockham's Razor, attacks on and defenses of emergentism, and appeals to Turing Machines as analogues (Hook, 1960).

This paper does not propose to enter that particular dispute, although the author believes the Identity theorists have made the better case thus far. Rather, it is here proposed ,to widen the frame of reference …