Brain Quote by David Papineau

Nearly everybody nowadays accepts the 'causal completeness of physics' - every physical event (or at least its probability) has a full physical cause. This…

— David Papineau

My first degree was in mathematics. That was great, but it didn't help with many of the things that puzzled me. I became a…

— David Papineau

If there is such a simple argument for physicalism, how come everybody hasn't always been a physicalist? That's a good question, and there is…

— David Papineau

Kripke says that physicalists like me can't explain the 'apparent contingency' of mind-brain identities. He maintains that, if I really believed that pains are…

— David Papineau

A certain kind of methodologically-minded philosopher of science is quick to read off metaphysical conclusions from features of scientific practice. Chemists don't derive their…

— David Papineau

I think my view is rather more radical than Pete Mandik's. Both of us want to show that colour perception doesn't transcend what can…

— David Papineau

On the methodological issue, I think that would be hopeless to try to adjudicate between my view and orthodoxy by appeal to phenomenological introspection.…

— David Papineau

Again, when we view a scene fleetingly, do we consciously see all the details even though we don't retain them, or do we not…

— David Papineau

Everybody agrees that a future in which you are dead is a very bad thing, and that it isn't made any better by your…

— David Papineau

In truth a clear-headed physicalist shouldn't be thinking any of these dualist thoughts. If pains are one and the same as C-fibres firing, then…

— David Papineau

The use of neuroscientific data to help resolve phenomenological questions is proving a common theme in much contemporary thinking about the mind. How rich…

— David Papineau

Natural selection has ensured that each species achieves the requisite effect somehow, but it doesn't care, so to speak, how the trick is done.

— David Papineau