Physicalism, Conceptual Analysis, and Acts of Faith

Frank Jackson and I each take the other to hold a position in philosophy of mind which is extremely difficult to sustain. My objective is more to demonstrate the sanity of Jackson’s opponents and the fragility of his own position than the truth of any particular doctrine. I bring to the surface an assumption in ontology which I see as a crucial part of the grounding of Jackson's particular version of physicalism. I think that when it is appreciated that this assumption may be rejected, Jackson's opponents are seen in a different light from the one in which they appear in his writings. (More generally, a connection is made between the vast literature on physicalism as a topic in philosophy of mind and the equally vast literature on material constitution as a topic in metaphysics.)Article