Russellian Monism and Epistemic Pessimism
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Ståle Gundersen
Abstract
Russellian monism is any view that proposes that we cannot solve the mind-body problem because natural science cannot tell us about the aspects of physical reality that are necessary to know to explain consciousness. I argue that Russellian monism should be combined with the Heil-Martin theory about dispositions. However, this combination becomes a theory with some profound epistemic pessimistic consequences, namely that we cannot bridge the explanatory gap between physical and conscious states and that we cannot solve the other minds problem. However, this epistemic pessimism does not constitute an unacceptable kind of “mystery-mongering” because we can also find analogous results in the well-established sciences. This may make it easier to accept Russellian monism’s epistemic pessimism.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Frontmatter
- How to Read the Tractatus: Traditionally, Resolutely, or Iconologically?
- Russellian Monism and Epistemic Pessimism
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Who will advise us?
- Frontmatter
- How to Read the Tractatus: Traditionally, Resolutely, or Iconologically?
- Russellian Monism and Epistemic Pessimism
- Repression and Moral Reasoning: An Outline of a New Approach in Ethical Understanding
- 10.1515/sats-2014-0005
- Different Interpretations of Hegel’s Logic and Metaphysics
- Aarhus Lectures – Third Lecture: The Prospects of Schelling’s Critique of Hegel
- Who will advise us?
