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Objects and Persons

Trenton Merricks (Oxford University Press: Dec 11, 2003), 216 pages.

Table of Contents

  • 1    Explaining Eliminativism    1
    • I    Eliminativism: The Basic Idea    2
    • II    Eliminativism: Not as Bad as you might Think    8
    • III    The Linguistic Charge of Contradiction    12
    • IV    The Metaphysical Charge of Contradiction    20
  • 2    Considerations in Favour of Eliminativism    30
    • I    The Water in the Pool    30
    • II    The Sorites Game    32
    • III    The Statue and the Lump    38
    • IV    Brains and Thinkers    47
  • 3    Epiphenomenalism and Eliminativism    56
    • I    The Causal Principle    57
    • II    Atomic Causation    59
    • III    Causal Overdetermination    66
    • IV    The Moral of the Overdetermination Argument    79
  • 4    Surviving Eliminativism    85
    • I    Step One    89
    • II    Conscious Mental Properties and Premiss (1a)    93
    • III    Objections to the Defence of Premiss (1a)    96
    • IV    Step One Again    104
    • V    Step Two    107
    • VI    On What Composite Objects Exist    114
  • 5    Considerations in Favour of Eliminating Us?    118
    • I    Persons and the Water in the Pool    119
    • II    Persons and the Sorites Game    124
    • III    Statues, Lumps, and Persons    130
    • IV    Brains, Thinkers, and Persons    135
  • 6    Mental Causation and Free Will    138
    • I    The Exclusion Argument(s)    138
    • II    Causal Overdetermination Again    146
    • III    The ‘Bottom-Up’ Threat to Free Will    155
  • 7    Belief and Practice    162
    • I    False Folk Beliefs    162
    • II    False Folk Beliefs are Nearly as Good as True: Justification    171
    • III    False Folk Beliefs are Nearly as Good as True: Practice    175
    • IV    And Yet I Often Say ‘There are statues’    186
    • References    191
    • Index    201