Reductionism, Levels of Organization, and the Mind-Body Problem
Published 1 January 1976
William C. Wimsatt
Citations272
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
Abstract
Dr. Sperry's position is complex and variegated, and I will be unable to discuss some of the issues raised by him in this volume and in other closely related papers. He has chosen to characterize his position generally as "emergent interactionism" and to spend a great deal of time distinguishing it from other views, ranging over the spectrum from dualism to materialism. His more general conception justifies and merits a more general response, which I shall present here.
Keywords
PsychologyArts and Humanities
Physics Today<i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i>
35,519 Citations1963Thomas Kühn, Richard Schlegel
The Quarterly Journal of EconomicsA BEHAVIORAL MODEL OF RATIONAL CHOICE
15,263 Citations1955Herbert A. Simon
John Murray eBooksThe expression of the emotions in man and animals.
11,390 Citations1872Charles Darwin
Princeton University Press eBooksEvolution in Changing Environments
5,307 Citations1968Richard Levins
Professor Levins, one of the leading explorers in the field of integrated population biology, considers the mutual interpenetration and joint evolution of organism and environment, occurring on several levels at once.
Henry Holt and Co eBooksPlans and the structure of behavior.
4,538 Citations1960George A. Miller, Eugene Galanter +1 more
Princeton University Press eBooksOn Growth and Form, 1917
4,218 Citations2019D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought
2,793 Citations2018George C. Williams
George Williams's "Adaptation and Natural Selection", now a classic of science literature, is a thorough and convincing essay in defense of Darwinism; its suggestions for developing effective principles for dealing with the evolution debate and its relevance to many fields outside biology ensure the timelessness of this critical work.
Annual Review of Ecology and SystematicsThe Units of Selection
1,905 Citations1970Richard C Lewontin
The principle of natural selection as the motive force for evolution was framed by Darwin in terms of a "struggle for existence" on the part of organisms living in a finite and risky environment, but the logical skeleton of his argument turns out to be a powerful predictive system for changes at all levels of biological organization.
The American Journal of PsychologyPrinciples of Neurodynamics: Perceptrons and the Theory of Brain Mechanisms
1,818 Citations1963Benjamin White, Frank Rosenblatt
The background, basic sources of data, concepts, and methodology to be employed in the study of perceptrons are reviewed, and some of the notation to be used in later sections are presented.
American Journal of PhysicsPatterns of Discovery
1,633 Citations1959Norwood Russell Hanson, Paul F. Schmidt
The Philosophical QuarterlyContent and Consciousness.
1,142 Citations1970N. J. H. Dent, Daniel C. Dennett
Boston studies in the philosophy of scienceBoston Studies in the Philosophy of Science
864 Citations1969
Skill in Chess
768 Citations1988Herbert Simon, William G. Chase
This article was devoted to a theory of the processes that expert chess players use in discovering checkmating combinations, embodied in a running computer program, mater, and subjected to additional empirical testing.
Cambridge University Press eBooksExplanation, reduction and empiricism
624 Citations1981Paul K. Feyerabend
The American Journal of the Medical SciencesBRAIN AND CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
523 Citations1967John C. Eccles
Psychological ReviewA modified concept of consciousness.
499 Citations1969R. W. Sperry
A theory of mind is suggested in which consciousness, interpreted to be a direct emergent property of cerebral activity, is conceived to be an integral component of the brain process that functions as an essential constituent of the action and exerts a directive holistic form of control over the flow pattern of cerebral excitation.
Psychological Explanation
449 Citations2007Craig Parsons
Statistical explanation & statistical relevance
360 Citations1971Wesley C. Salmon
Cambridge University Press eBooksAn Introduction to the Kinetic Theory of Gases
351 Citations1982James Jeans
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part ATeleology and the logical structure of function statements
321 Citations1972
Boston studies in the philosophy of scienceScientific Discovery and the Psychology of Problem Solving
186 Citations1977Herbert A. Simon
Mind—body identity, privacy and categories
172 Citations1970Richard Rorty
Telematics and InformaticsMentality and Machines
139 Citations1986
The authors may not be able to make you love reading, but mentality and machines will lead you to love reading starting from now and this will give you the kindness.
Philosophy of ScienceReduction in Genetics—Biology or Philosophy?
134 Citations1972David L. Hull
It is shown that there are numerous empirical and conceptual difficulties which stand in the way of establishing a systematic inferential relation between Mendelian and molecular genetics.
Content and Consciousness
106 Citations2002Daniel C. Dennett
Brain Bisection and Mechanisms of Consciousness
93 Citations1965R. W. Sperry
The behavioral performances of cats and monkeys following brain bisection have led to the conclusion that each of the surgically separated hemispheres must sense, perceive, learn, and remember quite independently of the other hemisphere.
ScienceEquipotentiality Quantified: The Anatomical Distribution of the Engram
72 Citations1973F. Bartlett, E. Roy John
These results may constitute the basis for reconciliation of localizationist and antilocalizationist views of brain function.
Quarterly Reviews of BiophysicsTheories of associative recall
65 Citations1970H. C. Longuet–Higgins, David Willshaw +1 more
Most of the models developed beyond their initial hypotheses have a certain family resemblance, and it seems as if the authors may now be in possession of the basic ideas which will be needed for the understanding of one of the central problems of memory, namely the mechanism of associative recall.
A Picture Theory of Theory-Meaning
23 Citations1971Norwood Russell Hanson
Mind—body identity, a side issue?
19 Citations1970Charles Taylor
Reflections on “Fundamentality and Complexity”
13 Citations1974M. Dresden
Philosophy of ScienceSystems Theory and Evolutionary Models of the Development of Science
12 Citations1971James Blachowicz
Philosophy of ScienceGeorge C. Williams <i>Adaptation and natural selection: a critique of some current evolutionary thought</i>. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966. 307 pp. $6.50.
9 Citations1970William C. Wimsatt
NatureThe Problem of Reduction in Biology
9 Citations1972June Goodfield
Dr Goodfield sums up a conference that was held at the Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy, between September 8 and 16.
Philosophy of ScienceBiological Foundations of the Psychoneural Identity Hypothesis
8 Citations1972Gordon G. Globus
A paradox is suggested: rather than being irreducible to physical reality, consciousness per se is the only experience congruent with the ultimate nature of physical reality as conceived by contemporary physics.