Jaegwon Kim
Jaegwon Kim | |
---|---|
Born | |
Korean name | |
Hangul | 김재권 |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Gim Jae-gwon |
McCune–Reischauer | Kim Chaegwŏn |
Jaegwon Kim (September 12, 1934 – November 27, 2019)
Biography
Kim took two years of college in
Kim was the Emeritus William Herbert Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy at
According to Kim, two of his major philosophical influences are
Work
Kim's philosophical work focuses on the areas of philosophy of mind, metaphysics, action theory, epistemology, and philosophy of science.
Philosophy of mind
Kim has defended various
Kim eventually rejected strict physicalism on the grounds that it provided an insufficient basis for resolving the
In his later years, Kim defended the thesis that
In a 2008 interview with Korean daily newspaper
Argument against non-reductive physicalism
Kim has raised an objection based on
The non-reductive physicalist is committed to following three principles: the
In detail: he proposes (using the chart on the right) that M1 causes M2 (these are mental events) and P1 causes P2 (these are physical events). M1 has P1 as its supervenience base, and M2 has P2 as its supervenience base. The only way for M1 to cause M2, is by causing its supervenience base P2 (a case of mental-to-physical causation). If P1 causes P2, and M1 causes P2, then we have a case of causal overdetermination. Applying the principle of causal-exclusion, either P1 or M1 must be eliminated as a cause of P2. Given the principle of the causal closure of the physical domain, M1 is excluded.
The non-reductive physicalist is forced to choose between two unappealing options: one could reject the causal-exclusion principle and claim that in this scenario we are dealing with a genuine case of overdetermination, or one could embrace epiphenomenalism. Kim argues that mental causation can only be preserved by rejecting the premise of irreducibility in favor of reduction; in order for mental properties to be considered causally efficacious, they must be reducible to physical properties.
Metaphysics
Kim's work in metaphysics focuses primarily on events and properties.
Kim developed an event identity theory, but has not defended it recently. This theory holds that events are identical if and only if they occur in the same time and place and instantiate the same property. Thus if one waves ten fingers, several events occur, including the waving of an even number of fingers, the event of waving fingers that are evenly divisible by five, and evenly divisible by ten. Some have criticized his theory as producing too many events.
Kim also theorized that events are structured. He is known for a property-exemplification account of events. They are composed of three things: Object(s), a property and time or a
A unique event is defined by two principles: the existence condition and the identity condition. The existence condition states "[x, P, t] exists if and only if object x exemplifies the n-adic P at time t". This means a unique event exists if the above is met. The identity condition states "[x, P, t] is [y, Q, t`] if and only if x=y, P=Q and t=t`".[citation needed]
Epistemology
Kim is a critic of the
Awards
- 2014: Kyung-Ahm Prize, Kyung-Ahm Education & Cultural Foundation
Selected publications
The following is a partial list of publications by Jaegwon Kim.
- (1984) "Epiphenomenal and Supervenient Causation", Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. IX, Peter A. French, Theodore E. Uehling, Jr., and Howard K. Wettstein, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984, pp. 257–70.
- (1988) "What is 'Naturalized Epistemology'?", Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 2 (1988): 381–405.
- (1993) Supervenience and Mind, Cambridge University Press.
- (1998) Mind in a Physical World, MIT Press.
- (1999) "Making sense of Emergence", Philosophical Studies 95, pp. 3–36.
- (2005) Physicalism, or Something Near Enough, Princeton University Press (Chapter 1).
- (2006) Philosophy of Mind, 2nd ed., Westview Press.
- (2010) Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind, Oxford University Press
See also
References
- ^ Kim, Jaegwon. (1984). "Concepts of supervenience," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 45(2): 153–176.
- ^ Weinberg, Justin (November 29, 2019). "Jaegwon Kim (1934-2019)". Daily Nous. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
- ^ a b c d [1] Archived October 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Kim, Jaegwon". Research.brown.edu. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- ^ Brown University. "Home | Philosophy". Brown.edu. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- ^ Kim, 1984.
- ^ Kim, 2005, p. 31.
- ^ a b Kim, 2005, p. 29.
- ^ Joongang IlboNewspaper article, March 8, 2008.
- ^ 10. Murphy, Nancey. 1999. "Supervenience and the Efficacy of the Mental", in Russell, Robert John (ed), Neuroscience and the Person, Vatican City State, Vatican Observatory Press, pp. 147-164, 154. ISBN 0-268-01490-6
- ^ (2003) "Blocking Causal Drainage and Other Maintenance Chores with Mental Causation", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 67.1: 151-76.
External links
- Jaegwon Kim's homepage - at Brown University.
- Interview with Jaegwon Kim, Fall 2000 (originally at Ephilosopher.com, now only available at blog.naver.com).
- Jaegwon Kim's CV Archived 2013-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
- Mental Causation, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Mind and the Causal Exclusion Problem, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy