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Colloquium Talk: Robert Smithson

November 13, 2020 @ 4:00 pm

Dr. Robert Smithson (UNC Wilmington)

“In Defense of Macroidealism”

Abstract: In the hope of providing a fully explanatory, monistic metaphysics, philosophers have recently defended two versions of idealism. Microidealists claim that physical truths depend on truths about the phenomenal states of microphysical entities, while cosmic idealists claim that physical truths depend on truths about the phenomenal states of a single cosmic entity. But neither view seems to provide a genuine explanatory advantage over materialism. This is because the connection between micro (or cosmic) experience and macroexperience seems just as opaque as the connection between the physical and the phenomenal. So if idealism is to address the mind-body problem, it needs a different starting point. Given the apparent difficulty of constructing macrophenomenal truths from anything else, I will consider the prospects of macroidealism: the view that physical truths metaphysically depend on truths about the phenomenal experiences of macroscopic subjects.

For more information, please contact dept@phil.ufl.edu.

Details

Date:
November 13, 2020
Time:
4:00 pm
Event Category:

Venue

Zoom