The Case Against Physicalism By Jacky Chang Assignment

The Case Against Physicalism By Jacky Chang - Assignment Example While there are many arguments against physicalism, the largest and most consistent one seems to be that of consciousness, intellect, freedom of choice, and all the qualities that make a human being fully human. The physicalist reasoning relies too heavily on reduction thinking. They define physical as either being expressed in physical terms or else in the broad sense as being anything that is part of a physical system or process. In this way, they reduce all beingness to a matter of physical nature. In fact, there are non-physical things. Alter(2005) uses Descartes’ argument, that phenomenal consciousness is not physical due to the fact that one can conceive of the body as well as the mind independently of each other, therefore, phenomenal consciousness is neither functional nor physical, to prove that we have a fully conscious mind and a fully present body. According to physicalists, all knowledge is a mental function of learning by processes involving the five senses. How, then, can we account for human intuition, experiential knowledge and the sense of general knowingness that comes with the journey of life? According to Alter(2005), human intuition and knowingness are justifiable by reason alone, with no empirical evidence needed; we don’t intentionally learn everything, How does the physicalist account for freedom of choice? Melynk (2007) uses the argument that choice cannot be free as it refers to a causal agent or, in the case of theism, a supposed intentional agent that predesigned or had prior knowledge of that choice. Yet, Goetz and Taliaferro(2007) argue that choice is not causal or determined, but rather a function of our conceptual and intentional qualities, which in reality are abstract forms and therefore non-physical objects. How can the qualities that make us fully human be explained in physicalist terms? Melnyk(2007).