Consciousness in the Physical World Perspectives on Russellian Monism

According to Russellian monism, an alternative to the familiar theories in the philosophy of mind that combines attractive components of physicalism and dualism, matter has intrinsic properties that both constitute consciousness and serve as categorical bases for the dispositional properties described in physics.

Consciousness in the Physical World collects various works on Russellian monism, including historical selections, recent classics, and new pieces. Most chapters are sympathetic with the view, but some are skeptical. Together, they constitute the first book-length treatment of the view itself, its relationship to other theories, its motivations, and its problems.

Torin Alter is Professor of Philosophy at The University of Alabama, USA. He is author of articles in Mind, Philosophical Studies, and elsewhere; co-author of A Dialogue on Consciousness and The God Dialogues: A Philosophical Journey (both OUP); and co-editor of Consciousness and The Mind-Body Problem: A Reader and Phenomenal Concepts and Phenomenal Knowledge: New Essays on Consciousness and Physicalism (both OUP).

Yujin Nagasawa is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is author of God and Phenomenal Consciousness: A Novel Approach to Knowledge Arguments (CUP) and co-editor of There's Something About Mary: Essays on Phenomenal Consciousness and Frank Jackson's Knowledge Argument (MIT Press).

Contents

Editors' Introduction
Torin Alter and Yujin Nagasawa

Part I: Precursors

Chapter 1: Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, excerpt from Monadology and letter to DeVolder


Chapter 2: Immanuel Kant, excerpt from Critique of Pure Reason

Chapter 3: William James, excerpt from The Principles of Psychology


Chapter 4: Bertrand Russell, excerpts from Analysis of Matter (1927), Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), Portraits from Memory (1956), and My Philosophical Development (1959).

Chapter 5: Leopold Stubenberg, "Russell, Russellian Monism, and Panpsychism"

Chapter 6: Donovan Wishon, "Russell on Russellian Monism"

Part III: Modern Classics and Recent Works

Chapter 7: Grover Maxwell, "Rigid Designators and Mind-Brain Identity" (excerpt)

Chapter 8: Michael Lockwood, "The Grain Problem"

Chapter 9: Galen Strawson, "Real Materialism" (revised version, with postscript)

Chapter 10: Barbara Gail Montero, "Russellian Physicalism"

Chapter 11: Gregg Rosenberg, "Causality and the Combination Problem"

Chapter 12: David J. Chalmers, "Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism"

Chapter 13: Torin Alter and Robert J. Howell, "The Short Slide from A Posteriori Physicalism to Russellian Monism"

Chapter 14: Derk Pereboom, "Consciousness, Physicalism, and Absolutely Intrinsic Properties"

Chapter 15: Daniel Stoljar, "Russellian Monism or Nagelian Monism?"

Chapter 16: Alyssa Ney, "A Physicalist Critique of Russellian Monism"

Chapter 17: Philip Goff, "Against Constitutive Russellian Monism"

Chapter 18: Amy Kind, "Pessimism about Russellian Monism"

Chapter 19: Torin Alter and Yujin Nagasawa, "What is Russellian Monism?"