Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T04:37:42.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reductive Explanation and the 'Explanatory Gap'

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Peter Carruthers
Peter Carruthers*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD20742, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Can phenomenal consciousness be given a reductive natural explanation? Exponents of an ‘explanatory gap’ between physical, functional and intentional facts, on the one hand, and the facts of phenomenal consciousness, on the other, argue that there are reasons of principle why phenomenal consciousness cannot be reductively explained: Jackson (1982), (1986); Levine (1983), (1993), (2001); McGinn (1991); Sturgeon (1994), (2000); Chalmers (1996), (1999). Some of these writers claim that the existence of such a gap would warrant a belief in some form of ontological dualism (Jackson, 1982; Chalmers, 1996), whereas others argue that no such entailment holds (Levine, 1983; McGinn, 1991; Sturgeon, 1994). In the other main camp, there are people who argue that a reductive explanation of phenomenal consciousness is possible in principle (Block and Stalnaker, 1999), and yet others who claim, moreover, to have provided such an explanation in practice (Dennett, 1991; Dretske, 1995; Tye, 1995,2000; Lycan, 1996; Carruthers, 2000).

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 153 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achinstein, P. 1983. The Nature of Explanation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Balog, K. 1999. “Conceivability, Possibility, and the Mind-Body Problem” The Philosophical Review 108 (1999) 497–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, N. 1995. “A Confusion about the Function of Consciousness” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (1995) 227–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, N. and Stalnaker, R. 1999. “Conceptual Analysis, Dualism and the Explanatory Gap” The Philosophical Review 108 (1999) 1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carruthers, P. 2000. Phenomenal Consciousness. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, D. 1996. The Conscious Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. 1999. “Materialism and the Metaphysics of Modality” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (1999) 473–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, D. and Jackson, F. 2001. “Conceptual Analysis and Reductive Explanation” The Philosophical Review 110 (2001) 315–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. 1978. ‘Toward a Cognitive Theory of Consciousness’ in Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 9, Savage, C. ed.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. 1991. Consciousness Explained. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Dretske, F. 1995. Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Flanagan, O. 1992. Consciousness Reconsidered. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. 1990. A Theory of Content and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. 1998. ‘There are no Recognitional Concepts, not even RED’ in his In Critical Condition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. 1965. Aspects of Scientific Explanation. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, F. 1982. “Epiphenomenal Qualia” Philosophical Quarterly 32 (1982) 127–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, F. 1986. “What Mary Didn't Know” Journal of Philosophy 83 (1986) 291–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, F. 1998. From Metaphysics to Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, J. 1974. “Non-Causal Connections” Nous 8 (1974) 41–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, R. 1994. Raw Feels. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laurence, S. and Margolis, E. 2003. “Concepts and Conceptual Analysis” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 67 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, J. 1983. ‘Materialism and Qualia: The Explanatory Gap’ Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64 (1983) 354–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, J. 1993. ‘On Leaving Out What It's Like’ in Consciousness, Davies, M. and Humphrey, G. eds. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Levine, J. 2001. Purple Haze. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1986. ‘Causal Explanation’ in his Philosophical Papers, vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Loar, B. 1997. ‘Phenomenal States’ in The Nature of Consciousness, Block, N. Flanagan, O. and Guzeldere, G. eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. 1987. Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. 1996. Consciousness and Experience. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
McGinn, C. 1991. The Problem of Consciousness. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Millikan, R. 1984. Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, E. 1961. The Structure of Science. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, T. 1974. “What is it Like to be a Bat?” Philosophical Review 83 (1974) 435–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruben, D.-H. 1990. Explaining Explanation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. 1984. Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. 1989. “Four Decades of Scientific Explanation” inMinnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science 13, P. Kitcher and W. Salmon, eds.Google Scholar
Schaffner, K. 1976. ‘Reductionism in Biology’ in Philosophy of Science Association 1974, Cohen, R. et al., eds. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel.Google Scholar
Searle, J. 1992. The Rediscovery of the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. 1997. The Mystery of Consciousness. A New York Review Book.Google Scholar
Sklar, L. 1967. ‘Types of Inter-Theoretic Reduction’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 18 (1967) 109–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturgeon, S. 1994. “The Epistemic View of Subjectivity” Journal of Philosophy 91 (1994) 221–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturgeon, S. 2000. Matters of Mind. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tye, M. 1995. Ten Problems of Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. 1999. ‘Phenomenal Consciousness: The Explanatory Gap as a Cognitive Illusion’ Mind 108 (1999) 705–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. 2000. Consciousness, Color and Content. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. 1980. The Scientific Image. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar