Appendix - The mental as intentional/‘personal’ emergence: The psycho-personological perspective of Joseph Margolis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
A “NONREDUCTIONIST” PHILOSOPHY AND THE NOTION OF EMERGENCE
In the course of this book, and particularly in the last two chapters, frequent mention has been made of the name and work of Joseph Margolis. Margolis is, in fact, one of the most important figures in the contemporary debate on the mental, the human, and their science. Already in Knowledge and Existence (1973b; hereafter ke), later in Persons and Minds (pm, 1978), and Culture and Cultural Entities (ce, 1983), as well as in many minor essays, he directs his attention with considerable efficacy to several of the themes which constitute the object of the present essay: the possibility of describing the real in exclusively physical terms, the role of functions or non-physical properties, the problems concerning the mental and its relationship with the bodily – and, most importantly, the notion of person as the central figure of a psychological (and psychoanthropological) reflection.
The only reservation one might have, from a certain vantage point, about Margolis's overall view concerns his allusion to a materialistic and, on occasion, monistic perspective. Actually, however, this reference is usually made at a rather general level and in a predominantly ‘critical’ context, as a rejection of any sort of spiritualistic or metaphysical position. Furthermore, it is clear that what Margolis is really saying can scarcely be characterized as materialistic or monistic (in the usual sense of the terms).
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- The Enigma of the MindThe Mind-Body Problem in Contemporary Thought, pp. 267 - 282Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995