Cornell University
Library
Cornell UniversityLibrary

eCommons

Help
Log In(current)
  1. Home
  2. Cornell University Graduate School
  3. Cornell Theses and Dissertations
  4. Nonreductive Russellian Physicalism

Nonreductive Russellian Physicalism

Access Restricted

Access to this document is restricted. Some items have been embargoed at the request of the author, but will be made publicly available after the "No Access Until" date.

During the embargo period, you may request access to the item by clicking the link to the restricted file(s) and completing the request form. If we have contact information for a Cornell author, we will contact the author and request permission to provide access. If we do not have contact information for a Cornell author, or the author denies or does not respond to our inquiry, we will not be able to provide access. For more information, review our policies for restricted content.

File(s)
Dietl_cornellgrad_0058F_14491.pdf (19.4 MB)
No Access Until
2026-09-03
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/wqsz-kv95
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/116434
Collections
Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Dietl, Eve
Abstract

This dissertation develops a model of the mental that potentially solves classic problems for physicalism and opens new questions for artificial intelligence. This account, which I call Nonreductive Russellian Physicalism, posits non-relational physical properties that underlie the structure physics describes that are relevant to explaining consciousness. The literature is replete with disparate responses to classic issues for physicalist accounts of the mental, including the conceivability argument, causal exclusion, and multiple realizability. But we lack an account that provides a unified solution to the entire set of problems to which these issues give rise. I fill in this lacuna by bringing certain individual responses together to comprise a unified solution to this set of problems within a single view. In chapter 1, I develop a nonreductive Russellian physicalist account that features the proper subset relation as the interlevel relation, as on the non-Russellian model defended by Jessica Wilson and Sydney Shoemaker, that responds to all three issues. I augment this account in chapter 2 by appealing to the determinable-determinate relation as the interlevel relation, as on the non-Russellian model defended by Stephen Yablo. In chapter 3, I recruit the grounding relation to further enhance the account of the interlevel relation. I contend further that by combining these relations we obtain a richer characterization of the physical realization of the mental than by any taken separately. The overall result combines solutions to the challenges from the conceivability argument, multiple realizability, and exclusion to secure a unified solution to each within a single view. Next, in chapter 4, I defend Russellian physicalism from the threat of structuralism, the thesis that reality is ultimately exhausted by relations. One argument for structuralism begins with the claim that current fundamental physics describes the world ultimately and solely in terms of relations. But I argue that there are truths about fundamental reality concerning non-relational properties that are not and will never be resolved by current fundamental physics. These include Leibniz’s intrinsicality principle, consciousness, and the nature of causal powers. My model of the mental opens new questions for artificial intelligence (AI), which I discuss in chapter 5. I argue that my model may reveal the prospect of conscious AIs of the future that have free will on reasons-responsive accounts, which are plausible and widely endorsed, if they could act on the basis of reasons. And I argue that they may be morally responsible in a forward-looking sense.

Description
190 pages
Date Issued
2024-08
Keywords
Consciousness
•
Determinables
•
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
•
Russellian Physicalism
•
Structuralism
•
Subset View
Committee Chair
Pereboom, Derk
Committee Member
Silins, Nicholas
Starr, William
Degree Discipline
Philosophy
Degree Name
Ph. D., Philosophy
Degree Level
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
dissertation or thesis
Link(s) to Catalog Record
https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/16611692

Site Statistics | Help

About eCommons | Policies | Terms of use | Contact Us

copyright © 2002-2026 Cornell University Library | Privacy | Web Accessibility Assistance