As I see it, materialism has three components. One is the causal close of the physical. The second is the mechanism of the physical, that there are no mental states in the supervenience base. Causation occurs without purpose at the basic level. The thrd is the supervenience of all other states on the physical. The second is the tripper for materialist who wants to be a compatibilist. An action caused by a desire is not mechanistically caused. The brain state that is the desire might cause the brain state that begins the action, but not because of the content of the desire. Think of this. Suppose an opera singer were to tell someone 'Look at that glass window. I will tell it to shatter, and it will listen to me and shatter. She sings 'Shatter now" and it shatters. But the shattering has nothing to do with the content of the words she sings. Hence compatibilist free will, which requires causationb by desire, is impossible on materialism.
The second is the mechanism of the physical, that there are no mental states in the supervenience base. Causation occurs without purpose at the basic level.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to see demonstrated the notion that materialism or physicalism necessarily entails determinism, but, be that as it may, there are features of reductive physicalism that are interesting with regards to the matter of determinism. For instance, as per reductive physicalism, there is no causation "at the basic level" just as there is no time or temperature or pressure "at the basic [microphysical, sub-atomic] level". Time, temperature, pressure, causation - they are all macrophysical or emergent (emergent what? - conditions, properties, perspectives, interpretations, ideas, stories, theories ... whatever). The allegedly or so-called basic level has never yet been a particularly useful perspective for explaining all that much about what relatively would have to be considered as the non-basic level (otherwise known as reality).