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Grounding physicalism and the knowledge argument

Séminaire international

On November 18, 2021

Alex MORAN

(University of Oxford, Royaume-Uni)

The paper explores a neglected answer to the well-known knowledge argument against physicalism. The argument depends on a familiar story: Mary is a genius scientist living in black and white room, where she is said to know all the physical facts. She then emerges from the room and sees red for the first time. And so on and so forth. Notably, the argument assumes that even in the black and white room, Mary could know all the physical facts; moreover, this assumption is rarely challenged in the (massive) literature on this argument. However, I think that physicalists both can and should challenge it and that those who state their physicalism in terms of the notion of metaphysical grounding are uniquely well-positioned to do so.

Date

On November 18, 2021
Complément date
10h30 - 12h

Localisation

Complément lieu
Amphithéâtre de la MSH-Alpes
1221 Av. Centrale, 38400 Saint-Martin-d'Hères

Submitted on October 28, 2021

Updated on October 28, 2021