Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

RESEARCH PAPERS

No. 57

The explanatory gap and the conceivability jargon

  • Asier Arias Domínguez
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12795/themata.2018.i57.10
Submitted
July 7, 2017
Published
2018-06-25

Abstract

As every mysterian argument, that of the explanatory gap is a modal argument that depends on the validity of two assumptions: a) the notion of the conceivable can be clearly defined, and b) there is some kind of link between the conceivable and the possible. The invalidity of these assumptions, however, is not the only threat to the validity of the explanatory gap argument, since it also relies on an inconsistent logocentric conception of scientific knowledge and on an ambiguous and indiscriminate use of the notions of explanation and identity.

References

  1. Berlin, I.: Karl Marx. His Life and Environment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1939/1978:2013.
  2. Bernabé Pajares, A.: De Tales a Demócrito. Fragmentos presocráticos (2ª ed.). Madrid: Alianza, 2001 p. 156
  3. Chalmers, D. J.: The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  4. Chomsky, N.: On Nature and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  5. Churchland, P. S.: Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002.
  6. Hesketh, G.: The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality. London: Quercus, 2016.
  7. Jackson, F. C.: “Epiphenomenal qualia” en Philosophical Quarterly 32, 1982, pp. 127-136.
  8. Jackson, F. C.: “What Mary didn't know” en Journal of Philosophy 83, 1986, pp. 291-295, p. 291.
  9. Kane, G. L.: String Theory and the Real World. San Rafael: Morgan & Claypool, 2017.
  10. Kripke, S.: Naming and Necessity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.
  11. Kripke, S.: Naming cit. Chalmers, D. J. «Does conceivability entail possibility?» en Gendler, T. & Hawthorne, J.: Conceivability and Possibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 145-200.
  12. Levine, J.: “Conceivability and the metaphysics of mind” en Noûs 32, 1998, pp. 449-480, p. 452.
  13. Levine, J.: “Materialism and qualia: The explanatory gap” en Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64, 1983, pp. 354-361.
  14. Levine, J.: “Materialism” cit. Levine, J.: «On leaving out» cit. Levine, J.: «Conceivability» cit.
  15. Levine, J.: «Anti-materialist arguments and influential replies» en Velmans, M. & Schneider, S.: The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007, p. 371-380.
  16. Levine, J.: «Conceivability, identity, and the explanatory gap» en Hameroff, S. R., Kaszniak, A. W. & Chalmers, D. J.: Toward a Science of Consciousness III. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999, p. 3-12.
  17. Levine, J.: «On leaving out what it's like» en Davies, M. & Humphreys, G.: Consciousness: Psychological and Philosophical Essays. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993, p. 121-136.
  18. Levine, J.: Purple Haze. The Puzzle of Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  19. Lewis, D.: (1994), “Humean supervenience debugged” en Mind 103, 1994, pp. 473-390.
  20. Loar, B.: «Phenomenal states» en Tomberlin, J. E.: Philosophical Perspectives, 4: Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind. Northridge: Ridgeview Publishing, 1990, p. 81-108.
  21. Papineau, D.: “What exactly is the explanatory gap?” en Philosophia 39, 2011, pp. 5-19.
  22. Papineau, D.: «Phenomenal and perceptual concepts» en Alter, T. & Walter, S.: Phenomenal Concepts and Phenomenal Knowledge. New Essays on Consciousness and Physicalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 111-144.
  23. Papineau, D.: Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
  24. Papineau, D.: Thinking about Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  25. Perry, J.: Possibility cit. O’Dea, J.: “The indexical nature of sensory concepts” en Philosophical Papers 31, 2002, pp. 169-181.
  26. Perry, J.: Possibility, Consciousness and Conceivability. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.
  27. Russell, B. A. W.: History of Western Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1945.
  28. Stoljar, D.: “Physicalism and phenomenal concepts” en Mind and Language 20, 2005, pp. 469-494.
  29. Tye, M.: Consciousness Revisted: Materialism without Phenomenal Concepts. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009 p. 56 y ss.
  30. Tye, M.: Ten Problems of Consciousness. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995. Tye, M.: Consciousness, Color, and Content. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
  31. Weinberg, S.: To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science. New York: Harper Collins, 2015 p. 247.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.